The influence of the change of drawing direction on the mechanical properties of steel wires and ropes

In wire drawing mills, although generally making use of multi-pass drawing machines, sometimes it happens that one or several of the last draws are made on another drawing machine, which leads to a change in the direction of drawing. Normally, we do not pay attention to this fact in industrial practice, but the change of drawing direction has an essential influence which decreases the fatigue strength of wires, as the research shows (Hankus, 2000). The work reported here describes tests on the mechanical properties of wires and ropes made from those wires, which were drawn with and without the change of drawing direction in the last draw. The major finding is a 24% decrease in the fatigue strength of ropes made from wires manufactured with a change of drawing direction in their production.

Author(s): Z. Muskalski and J. Hankus