Effect of Strain Path on Mechanical Properties of Wire Drawing Products

The main assumptions and processing details of the new wire drawing method (AAD angular accumulative drawing) are presented. Special emphases are given on the inhomogeneity of the deformation and resulted mechanical properties. There are many potential advantages that can be obtained from this new drawing process. The basic idea of the AAD process is deforming metals to much higher plastic strains, compared to the conventional wire drawing, and by introducing high grain refinement, achieving much higher tensile strength and ductility - what can be especially beneficial for alloys that are not characterized by complex compositions. In order to carry out the study of the AAD process, a special die design was made such that an ordinary drawing bench could be used. Additionally, a study using computer simulation of the strain and the stress distributions that exist in the drawn wire has been carried out. Presented results show that it is possible to produce wires with higher values of accumulated deformation energy with a lower area reduction. Applying the annealing process, both high strength and increased ductility were achieved in the drawn wires. Also, it is shown that the effect of strain path in the AAD process could be effectively controlled using computer simulation.