Delamination

When the pearlitic steel wires with low-torsional ductility are stranded, the wires could cause helical shaped
fracture called delamination. The occurrence of delamination fracture is one of the major obstacles that should be
overcome to increase the strength of the stranded wires.

Low Torsional Properties Reasons

Reasons of Torsion Failure / Low Torsional Properties:

1. Temp rise during multipass drawing

Steininger has pointed out that an increase in temperature in the die can lead to local hardening of the wire up to
the point of where martensite structures form. Such martensite inclusions cause brittleness and can result in
surface delamination during torsional stressing. [B]

2. Nitrogen Concentration
When a steel wire undergoes torsion testing, shear strain increases with number of twists, and the combination of
twisting moment and resulting shear stresses will twist the deformed fibers, and interstitial atom will precipitate
on and pin the dislocations. Consequently, higher interstitial free nitrogen concentration will decrease number of
twist to failure and resulted in premature failure. [C]

3. The role of cementite in determining the torsional properties

The spheroidization of cementite can prevent the pearlitic steel wires from torsion delamination. [A]

In steel wire drawing, many parameters influence the occurrence of carbon steel delamination [C]. Among the
most important of these are:
(i) the metallurgical process of smelting the steel;
(ii) the rolling process;
(iii) the patenting of the wire rod and wire; and
(iv) the drawing process.

[A]. Torsion performance of pearlitic steel wires: Effects of morphology and crystallinity of cementite Lichu Zhoua,
Feng Fanga, Liping Wanga, Xianjun Hub, Zonghan Xiec,d, Jianqing Jianga (2019)
[B] Pass schedule of wire drawing process to prevent delamination for high strength steel cord wire S.K. Lee a, D.C.
Ko b, B.M. Kim c,* (2009)
[C] Failure Analysis of Motor Tire Bead Wires During Torsion Test Souvik Das • Prashant Koli • Jitendra Mathur •
Arthita Dey • Tanmay Bhattacharyya • Sandip Bhattacharyya (2013)