Development of improved Wire Rods for Cold Heading and Cold Extruding (MCL-T3)

Steel wire qualities for cold forging operations are normally produced by hot rolling and subsequent controlled cooling and soft-annealing, where frequently a drawing operation is included to achieve better annealing results. This project includes a fundamental study of the microstucture development during the thermo-mechanical treatment during wire rolling. The temperature-controlled rolling with lower rolling finish temperatures in combination with a specific cooling rate from the rolling heat should be used to optimise the microstructure and the mechanical properties for the subsequent annealing and forming operations. This work should provide alternative procedures for a reduction of production times or even elimination of particular process steps, e.g. the spheroidization annealing before the cold forging operation.