No More Annealing and Acid Cleaning with New Tech Gwo Lian Machinery Shakes Up Industry

■ Li Fu-chung

The PASAIP process has long been considered a standard method to produce high-level alloy steel wire, despite its time, profit consuming, and environmentally-harmful practices. However, that changed when wire drawing machine maker Gwo Lian Machinery innovated a patented technology "alloy steel thick wire drawing," which has revolutionized the industry. The new process not only accelerated the production time but also made it more environmentally-friendly and more cost-efficient.

New, Revolutionizing Process

The successful, new, and improved method is based on Gwo Lian's 40-years of experience in the industry. The firm's process is different because Gwo Lian can eliminate steps like annealing and two-step acid cleaning. The area reduction ratio can exceed 25% by drawing wire directly, with each kilogram saving NTD$4.5 of added processing costs. Gwo Lian's patented technology includes decortication, steel brushing for descaling, and thick wire drawing to replace the traditional and convoluted process. Conventional methods require four steps: an initial acid cleaning, spheroidizing, second acid cleaning, phosphate coverage, saponifying oil treatment, and thick wire drawing.

Gwo Lian's improved process can take in 6.5mm to 20mm steel wire rods, using an automatic wire feeder device, freeing up timely techniques like threading and improving efficiency. The new method's two-time wire-stretching step can also reduce a 21% area rate and surpass the 25% area reduction rate. Once the wire is stretched, it's possible to adjust the outside diameter to adhere to a diameter value for annealing, increasing annealing furnace capacity.