welding wire production machine (copper coating machine)technical

Application Status and Characteristics of Solid Welding Wire Production Lines in China

In the past, the production lines of solid welding wires in China were divided into two methods based on copper plating process: electroplating and chemical plating. In the chemical plating process, there were three models that appeared successively. In recent years, two forms of combined electrochemical plating process and high-speed copper plating production line for welding wires have been introduced in China:

2.1 Production line using chemical plating process

1) Flip over type water tank wire drawing and copper plating production line: The process feature is that the water tank type Wire Drawing Machine is equipped with five grid plating slots. The advantages of this model are small production line area, low investment, and the integration of wire drawing, copper plating, and wire winding, with a high degree of equipment automation. The disadvantage is that due to external conditions such as wire quality, molds, and lubricating materials, the wire drawing speed in actual production does not exceed 7m/s. It is easy to form broken wires and waste wires, and the joint and threading after the broken wires are time-consuming and labor-intensive. At the same time, the cleaning effect of the plating bath is unstable, and the poor quality of the coating affects the product quality. However, this type of machine still exists in large quantities in Europe with good production conditions for auxiliary materials, and can produce high-quality welding wire products.

2) Linear wire drawing machine (dry drawing)+copper plating production line

In the early 1990s, this model was introduced from Germany in China. It entered the domestic welding wire industry with the characteristics of integration of drawing, plating, and receiving, as well as high-speed (20m/s) and automation. Its advantages are equipment integration, high level of intelligence, and large single machine output. Straight drawing and no twisting of welding wire are beneficial for improving straightness. The disadvantage is that the process conditions of the production line have high requirements for the quality of wire rods, the matching of wire drawing molds and lubricants, which was difficult to meet the technical level at that time in China. From the perspective of plating tank design, insufficient cleaning of the welding wire before plating can easily affect the quality of the coating. At the same time, the use of welding wire reciprocating threading in the plating tank increases the copper plating time, resulting in too much bending of the welding wire, inconvenient threading, and even more trouble after wire breakage, which brings inconvenience to equipment operation. After a joint venture adopted this model to replace the unfolded multi wire plating production line, although production efficiency was improved and production costs were reduced, product quality has been difficult to restore to its optimal state.

3) Deployable chemical plating production line

In the mid to late 1990s, the expanded multi wire plating process represented by Taiwan-owned enterprise Jintai Company attracted great attention from the industry. Its high production efficiency and excellent welding wire quality quickly became a benchmark for solid welding wires in the domestic market. Domestic research institutions have successfully digested, absorbed, and independently developed this technology, and the production line has been promoted and applied, becoming the mainstream equipment for solid welding wire production. Its characteristic is that before copper plating on the welding wire, a combination of acid washing, alkali washing, and water washing is used. The surface of the welding wire is cleaned, which helps to improve the quality of copper plating. The disadvantage is that the production line involves a large amount of acid and alkali discharge, which increases the pressure on production enterprises to control environmental indicators.

2.2 Electroplating process

Mainly divided into cyanide electroplating and non cyanide electroplating, they have not become the mainstream process for welding wire production due to environmental conditions or product quality limitations. However, the accumulated theoretical knowledge and practical experience provide inspiration for exploring new copper plating processes in the future.

2.3 Electrochemical Plating Process

The process route of an environmentally friendly high-speed copper plating production line using electrochemical plating technology: wire rod laying ->mechanical shelling ->mechanical cleaning ->drawing ->acid pickling activation ->electrochemical plating ->cleaning ->drying ->polishing ->wire collection. It is developed on the basis of foreign linear wire drawing and copper plating integrated machines. Significant improvements have been made in the pre-treatment, pickling, and copper plating processes of wire rods. The use of electrochemical plating technology instead of pure chemical plating has improved the copper plating speed, transformed the reciprocating winding in the acid pickling activation tank and plating tank into a straight transition, reduced the bending of welding wires, and increased the wire speed from 20m/s to 30m/s, greatly improving production efficiency. Environmentally friendly design has been carried out on the working principles of the pickling tank and plating tank, reducing the discharge of plating solution. Replacing variable frequency speed control motors with servo direct drive motors on wire drawing machines significantly reduces energy consumption. The application of multiple environmentally friendly and energy-saving technologies has broken the history of using imitation equipment for welding wire production in the past, and taken an important step towards independent development.

Due to the fact that new technologies have only been promoted and applied in just three years, further observation is needed on the technical level, quality stability, adaptability of raw materials and auxiliary materials, improvement of labor productivity, production cost control, and performance in energy conservation and emission reduction of products. By comparing with previous production lines and analyzing the operational effects of production lines that have been put into use, the following preliminary conclusions can be drawn:

1) The electrochemical composite plating technology improves the copper plating speed of the production line, and the removal of alkaline washing process before plating may lead to issues such as insufficient cleaning of welding wires and unstable coating quality. This also exists in previous linear high-speed models, which is overcome by increasing the chemical plating time through reciprocating winding. At present, whether the composite plating of the new process can solve the problem is the key to achieving high-speed production. Failure to solve it well can cause problems such as copper loss and unstable wire feeding in the welding wire quality.

2) After increasing the operating speed of the equipment, there is a higher requirement for the coordination of wire rods, wire drawing molds, and lubricants, which can be selectively reduced.

3) When the equipment is running at high speed, the production optimization process parameter window narrows and the fluctuation of product quality increases.

4)Operators are responsible for the execution of various processes and processes involved in the entire production line, and their operational skills are required to improve. Therefore, the operation of new production lines in enterprises with welding wire production experience will be smoother. New project enterprises need to adopt a step-by-step approach to do a good job in operator training to ensure the stable operation of equipment and product quality.

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