GB980911A - Wire tinning apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<PICT:0980911/C6-C7/1> <PICT:0980911/C6-C7/2> A combined wire drawing and tinning installation, e.g. for tinning copper wire, is such that the tinning can proceed at a rate equal to the rate of drawing. The tinning unit comprises a bath of molten tin, Fig. 5, and a non-rotatable grooved guide member, e.g. a non-rotatably secured pulley 88 or a grooved sector, for guiding a wire 4 in the bath. The guide member 88 can be maintained manually or automatically at a constant depth in the bath by a raising and lowering device. As shown, the device comprises a plate 81d supported from a plate 81b by hand-operated parallel linkages 83a, 83b. The plate 81b is pivotally mounted at 82 to a stationary support 81a, thus allowing limited movement of the guide member 88 in the tin bath with variations in wire feed rate and tension. A wiper die 89 for removing excess liquid tin is loosely positioned in a mounting cage in the plate 81d and positioned so that its lower inlet orifice is below the tin surface and its upper outlet orifice above. Prior to entering the bath, the wire passes through a tunnel device 91 to which inert gas is supplied at 96. The device is pivotally supported at 93 and a rod extension 95 rests on a lug 90 of the guide member 88. To thread a wire through the tinning apparatus, both the tunnel device and the variable depth guide device can be pivoted out of the tin bath, Fig. 6(not shown). Fig. 1 shows a complete installation with a motor 3 of drive apparatus at one end and a collector unit 11 at the other. The steps carried out are wire drawing at 1, annealing at 2, degreasing at 5, scouring at 6, fluxing at 7, tinning at 8, precooling of the tinned wire between the tinning tank 8 and pulley 96a, and cooling at 10. After passing through immersion baths in units 5, 6, 7 and 10 the wire is engaged by pulleys which centrifugally throw off excess liquid.