A Study on the Dieless Wire Drawing Using Microwave

마이크로웨이브를 이용한 Dieless Wire Drawing 에 대한 연구

Micron-sized metal wires are widely used in industries such as filtration, catalyst and composite materials, etc. In the wire drawing process, the die that is used conventionally is an effective and, at the same time, sensitive component. However, a typical array of the dies has caused many problems in the wire drawing process, e.g., large frictional force on the interface between wire and the resulting high heat generation, precise adjustment of the dies, extended cooling system, die abrasion, etc.. Because of these problems, there have been many works that are aiming at improving the efficiency of wire drawing process by analyzing the die geometry and by applying advanced die material to prolong the die life or even at developing a dieless wire drawing system. This paper is dealing with developing a new wire drawing system that is applicable to reduce the wire drawing steps with high draw ratio. The new wire drawing system does not use the dies, but use the self-induced heater that works on the basis of the resonant phenomenon of wire material. The electromagnetic wave is the heating source. The results of the study on the diameter reduction and microwave flow analysis show that the heating effectiveness of the wire is influenced by the energy distribution in the microwave propagation chamber. We can obtain diameter-reduced wires by using microwave in the dieless drawing process. Microwave as a heating source is capable of producing wires without applying dies in wire drawing process.