A PROJECT ON Manufacturing Process of Wire & Wire Ropes IN

WIRE AND WIRE ROPES DIVISION TATI SILWAI, RANCHI

Submitted by: Kunal Singh

UNIVERSITY Roll No.-09103007027

HALDIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY,HALDIA, W.B.

Acknowledgement

The satisfaction and euphoria that accompany the successful completion of the work would be incomplete unless I mention the people, as an expression of gratitude, who made it possible and whose constant guidance and encouragement served as a beacon of light and crowned my efforts with success. This report would have been impossible but for the support and guidance that we receive from various people at different stages of the project. Our sincere thanks to Mr.Arvindkumar, HOD of HRD department Usha Martin Industries Ltd. Whose excellent guidance, encouragement and patience has made possible the successful completion of project. We are also thankful to all the staffs who shared their experience and knowledge with us despite of there so busy schedule. Last but not the least we extend my sincere thanks to the entire team for providing me their time and active co-operation and all who have helped me directly or indirectly in this project.

Contents INTRODUCTION

 USHA MARTIN COMPANY PROFILE WIRE & WIRE ROPE DIVISION RAW MATERIAL OUTLINE OF MANUFACTURING PROCESS o PATENTING o PICKLING o WIRE HEAT TREATMENT o LE-FOUR FURNACE o DSW FURNACE o WIRE MILL o ROPERY o DISPATCH CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY

Preface

As a student of B.tech in Mechanical Engineering,I had come to this industry for having experience of manufacturing processes implanted here,i.e. manufacturing of wires and wire ropes. This industry uses steel rods of various dia.(15mm to 35mm) As its raw material which is being processed to make wires and wire ropes that are used in constructional purposes such as making bridges structures, lifts, and for support in cranes, etc. The steel used for manufacturing is been transformed into its fine pearlitic state and then been drawn into wires of required diameters. Rope making consists of two specific processes namely preparation of strands from wires, in which wires are twisted about themselves, and then making ropes by twisting of these strands helically about a core which is generally made of jute or steel. Ropes have a specific specification which tells about number of stands and number of wires in each strand. For example: A 6x36 rope means it has 6 strands, each containing 36 wires. Ive discussed about what I learnt here i.e.detailed manufacturing processes used here in forth coming pages.

Usha martin company profile

Vision
In our chosen business, we shall retain market leadership in India and shall be globally competitive through customer orientation and excellence in quality, innovation and technology.

Looking back: a brief history

1960 the company was incorporated as UshaMartin Black(wires ropes limited) having its wire rope plant at Ranchi. The name was changed to UshaMartin Black limited in 1979 and further changed to Usha martin industries limited(UMIL) in 1983. 1965 UMIL promoted UshaIsmal limited(UIL) in collaboration with CCL Systems limited of UK for the manufacture of fittings and accessories, equipment for pre-stressed concrete system, wire ropes & wire ropes splicing equipment at Ranchi. UIL merged with UMIL in 1990 and became adivision of the company. 1971 UMIL promoted UshaAlloy Steel Limited(UASL) for the manufacture of billets at Jamshedpur. UASL merged with UMIL in 1988. 1975 UASL acquired an on-going rolling mill at Agra. 1975 UMIL set up its Machinery Division at Bangalore for the manufacture of wire drawing and allied machine in technical collaboration with Marshall Richards Barco Limited(MRB) of UK. 1979 in order to obtain steady supply of wire rods for its wire rope plant, UASL set up a Wire Rod Rolling Mill at Jamshedpur. 1987 UMIL, along with Bihar state Electronics Development Corporation, promoted UshaBeltron Ltd. (UBL)in collaboration with AEG KABEL of Germany for the manufacture of jelly Filled Telephone Cables. 1997 UMIL merged with UBL w.e.f 1st October 1997 2000 Acquisition of speciality wire rope manufacturing plant in UK BruntonShaw 2000 Commissioning of 25 MW thermal power plant for captive consumption. 2001 Commissioning of 2nd SMS to enhance capacity and produce quality specialty steel. 2003 UshaBeltron Ltd. Changed its name to Usha Martin Ltd.(UML). UML created Fine Cord plastic coated Fine Wires, household wire, polymer coated wire Fine Ropes & Bright Bars manufacturing facilities in Tatisilway Ranchi.

Company profile
UML is the 2nd largest wire & rope manufacturer in the world and has the largest variety in South East Asia. It is multiproduct, diversified engineering conglomerate with 10 production units in India, 1 in Thailand, 1 in UK and 1 in Dubai. It is savingvaluable foreign exchange by exporting its product to 42 countries like USA, Africa and Middle East, conforming to the strictest product qualities standards. It got the ISO 9000 Certification by BVQI in 1994. ICICI(BCB) did the business process re-engineering in1996 and line system was setup to enhance performance. With the modern concepts like TPM, value engineering, QC, suggestion scheme, customer satisfaction and human resource development, UML is trying to reach unparalleled heights. UML is serving through a leading daily PrabhatKhabar, KGVK, Usha Martin Technical Institute.

Steel Division
A backward integration initiative, the Usha Alloy and Steel Division(UASD) at Jamshedpur is one of the largest amongst secondary steel manufacturers of specialty steel long products in India. With ISO 9002 certified facilities, UASD has pioneered the unique process of steel making through mini blast furnace-arc furnace route, which ensures superior quality of steel at a lower cost. UASD serves a range of industries like automobile, general engineering, fasteners, railways, defence and power.

Machinery Division
The ISO 9001 unit was set up in 1974 at Bangalore to manufacture wire drawing and allied machines. Over the years the division has added a wide range of Wire, Wire rope & cable machinery to its product range and is now the leader in this field in India. The division started with technical collaboration with M/S Marshall Richards Barco of UKand subsequently has collaborated with internationally reputed firms like de-Angelli Industries SPA, Italy, StorebergerMaschinenfabrik, Germany, Hi-Draw Machinery ltd, UK and RedaelliTechnaMeccanica, Italy. A facility in Ranchi has also been created for manufacturing machines required for wire drawing and stranding applications.

UshaIsmal Division
This unit, having manufacturing unit in Ranchi (Eastern India), is the leader in the field of pre-stressing equipment and accessories and also executes pre-stressing job on turnkey basis

Raw Material Handling

Raw Material Use and Handling
More efficient utilization of raw materials will reduce losses and unnecessary waste generation ensures that employee: Use supplies only for their intended purpose Use only the amount necessary Keep frequently used hazardous materials near the site of use to minimise spills/accidents Provide transfer method which prevent spills and quality problems Pipelines for intermediate transfer Gravity spigot or pump to dispense bulk liquid material A spout and funnel for transferring liquids to different containers. Proper connection/disconnection of hoses and lines Control access to hazardous raw materials Designate central personnel to distribute materials.

Material Handling Equipment

Were engaged in manufacturing and exporting material handling equipment used for industrial purpose.

Patenting of Steel wire

The Patenting of Steel wires is a Heat-Treating process known for some time an applied generally, which consists of an Austeniting(Annealing) phase and an isothermal Quenching(holding) phase. Austeniting is carried out at a temp. of about 900C and Isothermal Quenching at temp. of about 500C.

For the practical realization of the two phases of the Patenting process various solutions are known. In the Austeniting phase of Patenting, the Steel Wire(generally several parallel guided Steel Wires) is heated to the required temp. by means of direct or indirect heating. Furnaces of different pullover systems are used for the indirect heating. This heating method has the common drawback that, due to the relatively low heat efficiency, the Steel Wire is warmed up slowly to the required temp. so that the either Pullover speed must be kept low or the linear measurement of the furnace must be increased. Direct heating is disadvantageous with respect to productivity, and indirect heating because of the cost of investment.a further drawback of the known method is that the scaling of Steel Wire can be reduced but not stopped, even with the application of an intricate firing system and a protective atmosphere. Direct heating is carried out for example by passing current through Steel Wire and utilizing the arising Joulean Heat. With this method, the supply of current inside the wires causes troubles. One of the known solutions utilises a mechanical contact arrangement, the drawback of which is that is not reliable enough and therefore current supply is unstable. With another known solution, current supply is provided through a metal bath. In this case the disadvantage is the the wires are immersed into a lead bath by interrupting there path (e.g. by means of rolls), therefore threading of the wire is difficult when starting, even with the above mentioned direct heating methods, the scaling of steel wires causes troubles. The further processing of the steel wires is possible only after descaling, requiring considerable expenditures and time. The descaling is generally carried out by means of strong acids. The application of acids is associated with accidents on the one hand and is detrimental to health on the other hand (acid fumes). The other, isothermal quenching phase of the patenting process is generally carried out by immersing the wire into a lead or salt bath of suitable temperature. For the immersion deflecting (depressing) elements, e.g. rolls or rollers are used. These elements are however not reliable enough and render the operation of the equipment too complicated. Another drawback of this solution is that the bath gets overheated at the entrance point of the wire, therefore required quenching is not ensured and the wire quality is thereby deteriorated. In order to eliminate the above difficulty, the bath is generally circulated by means of special pumps. These pumps render the equipment more intricate and expensive and at the same time, they easily break down due to adverse operating conditions.

Pickling
Pickling is a metal surface treatment used to remove impurities, such as stains, inorganic contaminants, rust or scale, from ferrous metals, copper and aluminium alloys. A solution called pickle liquor, which contains strong acids is used to remove the surface impurities. It is commonly used to descale or clean steel in various steel making processes.

Process
Many hot working processes and other processes that occur at high temperatures leave a discolouring oxide layer or scale on the surface. In order to remove the scale the workpice is dipped into a vat of pickle liquor. The primary acid used is HCl, although H2SO4 was previously more common. HCl is more expensive than H2SO4, but it pickles much faster while minimising base metal loss. The acid used here for pickling is HCl. Acid cleaning has limitations in that it is difficult to handle because of its corrosiveness, and is not applicable to all steels. Hydrogen embrittlement becomes a problem for some alloys and high carbon steels. The hydrogen from the acid reacts with the surface and makes it brittle and causes cracks. Because of acids reactants to treatable steels, acid concentration and solution temperatures must be kept under control to assure desired pickling rates.

Wire Heat Treatment

Wire after being drawn in wire mills and after passing the require quality checks are here for heat treatment is done to achieve the necessary ductility of wires. These are required for the further processing operation and the basic aim here is to change martensite structure which is verybrittle, to a fine pearlite structure which is more ductile. So wires are treated in the

furnace which maintained at austenitic temperature and quenched in the lead bath then they undergo for the chemical process in the furnace section itself. Two types of furnace are used here: Le-four furnace DSW furnace

The basic flowcharts and processes used there are shown in following pages.

Le-four Furnace
Le is a German word which means the. Hence this word Le with four means the four zones of this furnace. The furnace is 15.57m in length and is gas fired. The gas used is LPG.

Here the size of wire being treated ranges from 1.2mm to 5mm. the wires undergoes following stages.

Pay off furnace Lead bath Sand bath Water cooling Acid bath Water wash Phosphate bath Dryer Borax bath Dryer Take up
pp

Flux bath Dryer Zinc tank Lime bath Take up

Le-four Furnace:
Pay off the wires are located here for carrying out process.

Furnace the wire is passed through the furnace where heating takes place. There are four zones in the furnace with different as shown. heating zone Soaking zone zone 1 zone 2 zone 3 zone 4 104010C 103010C 98010C 98010C Slightly gas rich gas rich Slightly air rich

Lead bath the wire after being heated is quenched to 550C. Sand bath the wire is then passed through the sand bath, here the additional is wiped off from the surface by sand. Water cooling the wires after passing from sand bath is further cooled and the sand is washed off by water. Acid bath wire are treated with HCl to remove oxide layer and outer contamination and the wire is cleaned. Water wash the wire is further washed off from acid. Flux bath the wire is dipped in flux which acts as primer. Dryer wire is dried her Zinc tank the wire is given a zinc coating to prevent it from corrosion. Lime bath the wire after galvanising is given lime bath which holds the zinc coating. Take up the wire finally reaches here and is taken on bobbins.

DSW furnace
It is also German word (d=Dutch s=stash w=work)

Pay off Furnace Lead bath Sand bath dd bath Water cooling Acid bath Water wash Flux bath dryer Zinc bath Lime bath Take up

DSW Furnace:
Pay off the wires are located here for carrying out process.

Furnace the wire is passed through the furnace where heating takes place. There are four zones in the furnace with different as shown. Lead bath the wire after being heated is quenched to 550C. Sand bath the wire is then passed through the sand bath, here the additional is wiped off from the surface by sand. Water cooling the wires after passing from sand bath is further cooled and the sand is washed off by water. Acid bath wire are treated with HCl to remove oxide layer and outer contamination and the wire is cleaned. Water wash the wire is further washed off from acid. Flux bath the wire is dipped in flux which acts as primer. Dryer wire is dried her Zinc tank the wire is given a zinc coating to prevent it from corrosion. Lime bath the wire after galvanising is given lime bath which holds the zinc coating. Take up the wire finally reaches here and is taken on bobbins.

INSPECTION

The wires after patenting are then inspected again. All the quality checks are performed to see that whether the wires are meeting the required standards or not. If the wires are meeting the required standards then they are either send for scrap or further rework if the wire pass the quality checks then they are send for further drawing (to the ropery).

Wire Mill

This section dealswith treatment of wire for required properties and then wire drawing for its required cross section area. At Usha Martin, it is practiced a total productive maintenance philosophy in all activities to achieve zero breakage, zero accident and zero defect. Dedicated product development and quality improvement teams have been formed to work closely with customers to continuously fine tune our products and upgrade our quality norms, thus resulting in reduced production loss, reduced rejection rates and productivity improvement at the customers end. The stepwise checks performed to ensure stringent quality standards right from raw material stage to wire rod supply are as follows:

Raw material Stage

The primary raw materials- iron ore, coke, and limestone are selected after meticulous chemical and fractional size analysis. Further, reputed independent agencies periodically screen and select the best quality vendors.

Mini blast furnace

Operations of MBF are controlled by a state of the art PLC driven control system thus insuring a hot metal output that is consistent and repeatable in its properties. The furnace utilises a low silicon hot metal for steel making. Typical hot metal chemistry is as follows:%C=4.3 %Mn=0.20 %Si=0.80 %S=0.07 %P=0.12

Steel melting shop

The MBF arc furnace process route insures steel with minimal tramp elements and low gaseous content. Close monitoring at electric arc furnace at, ladle furnace and vacuum degassing station controls the chemistry. It is further verified through there fully equipped testing facilities that includes sophisticated instruments like optical emission spectrometer & carbon sulphur analyser. Some specific techniques followed at the steel melting shop for clean steel are: Continuous Ar purging in ladle. Cored wire injection in ladle. Vacuum degassing treatment for special grades as required.

Some of the characteristics of high quality steel produced are:

o o o o

Low tramp level (Cr+Ni+Cu=0.10% max.). Low gaseous content (N 70 PPM max.). Low S (0.025% max.) and low P (0.025% max.). Clean steel by modified inclusion morphology.

Casting
During casting, the hot metal stream is protected from atmospheric contamination by a ladle shroud and a bellow shroud or submerged entry nozzle as applicable. An electromagnetic stirrer in the mould and proper lubrication including uses of superior quality granulated fluxes insure a defect free as cast billet surface. Few highlights of this process are:o o o o Electromagnetic stirrer in the mould. Intensive secondary cooling. Equiaxed grain structure at billet core. Superior surface finish of billets.

Further to prevent segregation and remnant defects, the first and last billets of any any casting sequence are discarded.

Rolling
Before rolling, all billets are fully inspected and suitably dressed before charging into a walking beam reheating furnace. The walking beam furnace is designed for a uniform heating to achieve extra low decarburization level. The wire rod mill is a fully automated unit with facilities like no twist single line rolling for better surface finish. It is also equipped with facilities for thermo mechanical rolling. Following are the highlights of rolling:o o o o o Minimal decarburisation level (1% of wire roll max). Standard testing done in process. Options available for slow cooling, related cooling and fast cooling. Facility for thermo mechanical rolling. Front and tail cutting of billet at various stages of rolling.

Final inspection
Besides the standard tests for wire rods like tensile, hardness, microstructure etc. a fully developed infrastructure exists for conducting final inspection tests as per customer specifications and international norms. Following are the inspections conducted:o o o o o Dimension checking. Hot upset and cold upset tests. Tensile tests. Rockwell / Brinell hardness testing. Hardenability testing.

Wire Drawing

Wire drawing is a metal working process used to reduce the cross section of a wire by pulling the wire through single or series of drawing die(s). There are many applications for wire drawing, including electrical wiring cables, tension loaded structural components, springs, paper clips, spokes for wheels and stringed musical instruments. Although similar in process, wire drawing is different from extrusion, because in drawing the wire is pulled, rather than pushed, through the die. Drawing is usually performed at room temperature, thus classified as cold working process, but it may be performed at elevated temperatures for large wires to reduce forces. More recently drawing has been used with molten glass to produce high quality optical fibres.

Process
The wire drawing process is quite simple in concept. The wire is prepared by shrinking the beginning of it, by hammering, filing, rolling or swaging, so that it will fit through the die. The wire is then pulled through the die. As the wire is pulled through the die, its volume remains the same, so as the diameter decreases, the length increases. Usually the wire will require more than one draw, through successively smaller dies, to reach the desire size. The process of wire drawing improves material properties due to cold working. The areal reductions of small wires are 15-25% and larger wires are 20-45%. Very fine wires are usually drawn in bundles. In a bundle, the wires are separated by a metal with similar properties, but with lower chemical resistance so that it can be removed after drawing. If the reduction in dia. is greater than 50% the process may require annealing between the processes of drawing the wire through the dies. Commercial wire drawing usually starts with a coil of hot rolled 9mm in dia. wire. The surface is then first treated to remove scales, then fed into a single block or continuous wire drawing machine. Single block wire drawing machines include means for holding the dies accurately in position and for drawing the wire steadily through the holes. The usual design consists of a cast iron bench or table having a bracket standing up to hold the die, the coil of wire being stored upon another drum or swift which lies behind the die and reels off the wire as fast as required. The wire drum or block is provided with means for rapidly coupling or uncoupling it to its vertical shaft, so that the motion of the wire may be stopped or started instantly. The block is also tapered, so that the coil of wire may be easily slipped off upwards when finished before the wire can be attached to the block, asufficient length of it must be pulled through the die, this is affected by a pair of gripping pincers on the end of a chain which is wound around a revolving drum, so drawing the wire until enough can be coiled two or three times on the block, where the end is secured by a small screw clamp or vice. When the wire is on the block it is set in motion and the wire is drawn steadily through the dies. It is very important that the block rotate evenly and that it runs true and pulls the wire at constant velocity, otherwise snatching occurs which will weaken or even break the wire. The speeds at which wire is drawn vary greatly, according to material and amount of reduction. Continuous wire drawing machines differ from the single block machines in having a series of dies through which a wire passes in a continuous manner. The difficulty of feeding between each die is solved by introducing a block between each die. The speeds of the block are increased successively so that the elongation is taken up and any slip compensated for. One of these machines may contain 3 to

12 dies. The operation of threading the wire through all the dies and around the blocks is termed stringing up. Besides this, wire drawing machines are also classified on basis of state of lubricant used for cooling the die and also for defect free drawing product, when drawing is in progress as: Dry drawing machines Wet drawing machines

In dry drawing machines dry lubricants are used which may be a Ca or Na based soap powder. Ca based lubricant are specially used for heavy reduction in wire diameter and low speed for 1-4 ton dies, for cooling of the dies the machine use water, further these dry drawing machines are classified into following categories: BOB (block over block) type. OTO (over take up over) type. Path finder type. Composite (BOB+OTO) type.

Wet drawing machines use Drasol as lubricant, which is a powder dissolved in water. Wet drawing machines are different from there dry counter parts in respect that the wire to be drawn becomes wet before entering to the dye, which doesnt occur in dry drawing machines.

Fig.: a typical wire drawing machine, showing a no. of blocks

Ropery

Ropes are industrial components that are made from Strands which are further made from wires. It function is almost similar to that of Gears for transmitting power to lift heavy components with an additional property of shock absorbent. This is the section of this plant where wire comes from furnace after being properly drawn, heat treated and proper quality inspection.

CLASSIFICATION STRANDS
When wires are wound helically around a core (king wire), it forms a strand. Different form of strands is: Cross lead. Equal lead.

ROPES
When strand are wound around a core, it forms a rope. Ropes are classified according to the type of core used as: Steel core ropes. Jute core ropes. Fibre core ropes.

MACHINERY USED FOR ROPE MAKING

The machines used for rope making work on similar principal of wounding a number of strands around a core helically. Bobbins are loaded into cradles of the machine. The strands after being wound are again loaded to bobbins with help of capstan which is governed by a typical gear system.

TYPES OF MACHINERY USED IN ROPERY

Tubular stranding machine. Sun and planetary machine. Buncher machine.

Tubular Stranding Machine

This strander is for manufacturing high carbon and low carbon steels wires. This type of machine is having a tube like shape which is free to rotate around its longitudinal axis with help of motors, belt drives and also a heavy gear train. Cradles are located on the axis of the tube and the tubes surface is provided a number of holes for loading the bobbins on cradles. There is also a face plate which remains stationary during the rope making and carries a number of holes on it to let the strands pass through it. Its function is to maintain the wires of

the rope in correct order before convergence on cone. Cone lies centrally on the face plate it converges the wire to be twisted helically. Lubricants are used continuously near the cone to reduce the friction between strands when they become loose. Lubricants used here are bituminous and petroleum.

Fig: a Tubular stranding machine

Sun and planetary machine

Fig.: cradle of a sun & planetary machine As by its name, this machine resembles with sun & planrtary system. The bobbins carrying strands are loaded into cradles which are located on a heavy ring like structure, free to rotate about its transverse axis. The core is a strand loaded saperately & unwoundes along the axis of rotation of cradle. As the machine starts, the core gets continiously unwound and the cradle rotates about its axis such that the strands in the cradle get hellicaly wound around the core. Similar to tubular stranding machine, here also lubricant is provided at the wounding section of the machine, to avoid friction between strands if by some means they get loose.

Buncher machine

fig.: different parts of a Buncher machine This particular machine is used for particularly making rope of thin wires. However all the principals used here is the same as in preveous ones. The difference in operation of this machine from previous ones is that, thin wires are used in place of srands and no lubricant is used here.

Dispatch

Here is despatch section the wires, strands, ropes undergo final inspection, after the final inspection if goods are found to be meeting the required standard then they are sent for disposal purpose. After the ropes, strands and wires are given their final touches they are packed properly and then sent to their respective customers via roadways, rail and air as required.

Conclusion

Usha martin has taken giant strides in manufacturing of world class ropes strands and wires it is hence forth became the second largest company in the world in terms of manufacturing , seeing and closuring the manufacturing processes one can appreciate the efficiency of company. All the manufacturing sections are well maintained and properly organised however there is still scope of improvement and should be prepared to adopt to the highly volatile market condition.

Bibliography

WEBSITES CONSULTED:www.google.co.in www.wikipedia.com www.encyclopedia.com www.ushamartin.com www.encarta.com BOOKS REFERED Material science and engineering by W.F. Smith. Production technology by R.K Jain.