Proprietary Coating Spotlight: Wirewear®
Wirewear® is a new technique for lowering friction and is the result of over 20 years of diligent experimenting by A&A Coatings. Through the years, we coated components such as pulleys and wire drawing capstans with abrasion resistant, not sticking, low friction mixtures. The successful, most welcome result is finally complete. It is the perfect mixture and has been trademarked by A&A Coatings as Wirewear® coating. This fresh new product exhibits an undeniable improvement in the making of both non-ferrous and ferrous wire for size ranging from the highest of .375 down to .031.
What Is Wirewear®?
Wirewear® is a coating that is abrasion resistant and hard. The coating’s surface exhibits a low coefficient of friction. A coefficient is a value assigned to the friction created by rubbing together of two different objects. As an example, a low coefficient friction value would be assigned to rubbing steel and ice together. There would be literally no friction whatsoever if a value of zero were assigned as a coefficient value.
Wirewear® has an additional characteristic of increased hardness in service. But for a coating as hard as it is, it demonstrates the most impressive elasticity. This property is good news for reconditioned and new capstans as it provides a literally crack free surface.
Features of Wirewear® Coating
- Low coefficient of friction
- Without center coil marking, it has improved draw-ability
- Increased block and capstan life
- Creates a surface that is literally crack-free
- Hardness increases in service
- Both abrasion resistant and hard
- The Physical Properties of Wirewear®
- Again, a low coefficient of friction
- A finish that is classified as ground excellent
- <70RC after abrasive load
- Microhardness: as sprayed 60RC
- Med texture as sprayed (200 to 350 micro inches aa)
- The Process of Wirewear®
Wire moves through machines for wire drawing at very high speeds. Couple that with the pressure placed on wire drawing dies and a high value of friction results. This friction produces high heat. In the past, the only solutions that were practical for lowering the friction produced by wire drawing were as follows:
Slow down the drawing machines – but this had a direct result of production output reduction
Special lubricants had to be used between the wire drawing block, the dies, and the moving wire – but this method had various physical limitations
Why Is Friction Reduction So Important?
Without proper protection against friction, the result can be significant wear or possibly even failure of valuable equipment. Extended equipment life and increased process efficiency result from the proper reduction of friction. Not only does continued friction literally wear away layers of a part, but it also produces heat which could have any number of detrimental effects on parts, machinery, and products.
A&A Coatings Continues Its Success With Wirewear®
In the wire processing industry, constantly striving to improve the performance of various components, we have been providing wear resistant coatings for over 50 years. Included in our efforts has been the protection of capstans and blocks, annealer pulleys, guides, rings, rollers, pulleys, sheaves, and more. We have supplied coatings to industries such as power generation, semi conductor, packaging, printing, and many others. Contact us if you would like more information on Wirewear® or any one of our products and/or services.
