Design and Operation of New Copper Wire Drawing Plant: Part I - Design and Operation of High Speed Copper Wire Drawing Machines

* Reprinted, with minor changes, from Wire and Wire Products, October 1940. This paper was presented at the Wire Association Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, October 24, 1940, receiving Honorable Mention in Recognition of its Contribution to the Research Literature of the Wire Industry during the Year 1940. 95 /^·OPPER wire is used extensively in the making of facilities for com^^ munication purposes, the Bell Telephone System alone now using over 40 billion conductor feet per year. It is essential that this wire be of high quality with deviations in diameter kept to the minimum so that the apparatus with which it is to be used will function properly. A study made some years ago showed it would be economical for Western Electric to manufacture its wire, with the possibility of greater production by increasing the speed of drawing. The equipment provided at that time operated at speeds much higher than were then in general use. A few years later it became evident that the speeds selected were far from the ultimate at which wire could be drawn, and another development was started to determine a practical and economical speed, resulting in the design, construction, and placing into operation of two sizes of wire drawing machines. One, which will draw rod to sizes as small as No. 16 A.W.G., is called the No. 1 and is of 10 die capacity, designed to operate at 6000 ft. per minute. Figures 1, 2, and 3 show the front and rear views of this machine. A second machine for redrawing to finished sizes No.