Abstract
In recent years, ultrafine and precise products have played a key role in improving the performance of machines and equipment. In particular, ultrathin wires are expected to be used as a material with versatile functions. Wire drawing using hole dies has conventionally been used in the manufacture of thin wires. In conventional drawing, many dies with a specified hole diameter corresponding to each target diameter of the wires used are needed. With the recent trend of miniaturization, such dies have become difficult to manufacture. The authors have proposed a new drawing method in which a wire is drawn between two concave rolls at a skewed position. Although the efficiency was verified for a wire of 1.0mm diameter, the method has not been applied to wires with diameters of less than 1.0mm. In this research, the method was used on wires with diameters of 0.2 - 1.0mm using the same tools designed for wires with a diameter of 1.0mm. A series of the finite element analyses were carried out as a feasibility study, followed by experimental verification. Results showed that the new drawing method has a very wide range of free-size drawing from 0.2 to 1.0mm diameter even with the use of only one set of tools.
