The main articles produced from wire are nails, spikes, barbed wire, wire rope, telegraph and telephone wire, coiled spring steel fence wire, chain wire, various forms of woven wire and wire netting, wire hoop, wire bale ties, springs, piano wire, rivets, screws, staples, tacks, etc. Large quantities of various classes of wire are used in the manufacture of articles for house-hold and industrial purposes having innumerable applications.
Wire Drawing
The drawing of wire is performed in a draw bench, which consists of a die-plate and a driven reel for pulling the wire through the die. In order to reduce the friction caused by draw-ing, the wire is coated with a lubricant. The drawing may be either by the wet or dry process; the latter is generally used on sizes down to No. 18 and employs tallow or soap-stone as a lubri-cant, while the former is used for finer wires and a lubricant of rye meal flour and water is used. When a coppered finish is required, a solution of copper sulphate is applied to the wire and then it is given the final drawing. Wire, after being drawn through several dies, becomes hard and must be annealed to render it soft and pliable; it is then pickled, washed and cleaned from scale before being drawn down any further. A large quantity of wire is galvanized, which consists in coating the metal with a thin layer of spelter. Before being coated, the wire is annealed and cleaned, passed through a flux bath and then through molten spelter. The excess of spelter is removed by passing through asbestos wipers, or charcoal headers. A large number of wires are thus treated in the same apparatus at the same time.
Nails
Nails are short pieces of metal pointed at one end and forged with a head on the other end; they are used for fasten-ing and joining purposes. The shaft of the nail may be of various forms, but is usually round or square. With reference to the method of manufacture, there are two kinds of nails, name-ly, wire nails and cut nails, wire nails being by far the most important. They are manufactured from cold-drawn wire in automatic machines, called nail machines. Cut nails are pro-duced from nail plates by an automatic cutting process. Spikes are large nails. Standard railroad spikes are a special design of spike manufactured from hot or cold bar iron or steel wire in automatic machines, called spike machines. Nails and spikes are made in a great many forms and sizes, and are named after thekind of work to which they are applied. They are packed in wooden kegs, each generally weighing 100 to 200 pounds, respect-ively, and thus shipped. Large quantities also are packed in small cartons and boxes.
Production of Cut and Wire Nails
Table II gives the production in kegs of 100 pounds of standard sizes of cut nails and spikes cut from plates, in the 14 years from 1896 to 1912; also the production of standard sizes of wire nails during the same period.The annual increase of nails over cut nails in the 13 years also is shown.The maximum production of cut nails was reach in 1886, when 8,160,973 kegs were made, and the maximum production of wire nails in 1912, when 14,659,700 kegs were made.
Barbed Wire
Barbed wire consists of two twisted wires to which are securely fastened pointed wires called barbs, at intervals of 3
The Wire Industry
to 6 inches. Barbed wire, generally made from No. 12 to No. 15 gage, is manufactured by automatic machines and is put up on reels from 65 to 85 pounds, called pony reels; and on reels from 100 to 110 pounds, called regular or catch weight reels. The recent practice is to put 80 rods on a reel, the weights of which vary from 50 to 90 pounds.
Wire rope is composed of a number of wires wound in spirals around a core of lubricated hemp or a wire center. Vari-ous kinds of wire rope are manufactured from  one eighth inch in diameter up 2.5 to 3 inches in diameter, or larger. The use to which the rope is to be put governs its construction, in other words, the number of wires and strands, and the quality of steel or iron which enters into its manufacture. Wire rope is wound on wooden reels or in coils, and is shipped bright, tinned or galvanized. 轧机英文文献和翻译(2):http://www.751com.cn/fanyi/lunwen_1319.html