How Does a Straight-Line Wire Machine Work?

Straight-line wire machine is widely used to extend wires from a roll or coil in order to straight and to cut. The machine is offered with extensive features requiring diverse applications. Some machines are configured for straightening and cutting all kinds of cold drawing wires and other nonferrous metal wires. They may cut the wire as per requirements in the required dimension and thereafter, work continuously.

These wire mesh machines are complied with three different processes such as feeding, straightening and cutting off. These machines are available with various features such as different diameter size wires for straightening, different cutting lengths and standard multi-power motor for both straightening and cutting of wires.

The machine has basic parts like paying off, feeding, straightening and cutting head with cutting off unit.

In paying off unit, the wire may be paid off from a process such as a draw block or by more usual method employing a reel. Reel may be vertical or horizontal spindle. The vertical spindle should be used for wires up to approximately 2 mm to 4 mm in round.

In feeding unit, feeding of the wire is usually done by grooved feeding rolls or “pinch rolls”. This mechanism is power driven and pinches or squeezes the material so that the wire is either pulled and/or pushed through the machine. The feeding pressure to the rolls can be applied by hand through cams or spring.

The roll straightened, consists of a series of rolls that are offset and which bend the wire beyond the elastic limit a number of time in two or more planes as the wire runs through. The rolls are adjustable and the straightness obtained depends upon the skill of the operator making the adjustment. This method is generally restricted to shaped wires such as hexagons, squares and flats except for minor straightening of round wire for removing coil bow before further forming.

“Cutting off” or shearing process is followed by the straightening process. There are two general classifications of cut off mechanisms; one being the stationary shear where in the wire is actually stopped during the cutting cycle, and the other the “travel-cut” or flying shear in which the shearing mechanism moves along with the wire during the cutting cycle. The flying shear cut off is superior to the stationary shear type; for many applications using soft wire or small diameters. However, the stationary shear will give satisfactory results. When running hard wire or alloy through a high speed rotary arbor, flying shear is necessary, since if the wire were stopped for cutoff in the arbor, it may become overworked and overheated and break could result.