The influences of the variable speed and internal die geometry on the performance of two commercial soluble oils in the drawing process of pure copper fine wire

The cold wiredrawing process constitutes a classical-tribological system in which a stationary tribe-element (die) is in contact with a tribe-element in relative motion (wire) and both interacting with the interfacial tribe-element (lubricant). This condition is reflected in the effect of friction as a function of the drawing speed and temperature, and directly affects the wearing of the surface into the die and the final quality on the drawn wire. The aim of this work has been to determine the best conditions to process ETP-copper using two different types of oil/water emulsion lubricants. For this purpose, six different die geometries have been proposed and a set of tests have been carried out at different speeds (between 1 and 21 m/s) to determine those combinations that give a lower value in the required drawing force (Fd). The experiments allowed to know the friction coefficient (µ), the temperature profile inside the drawing die and in the lubricant and also the mean roughness (Ra) in the drawn product. The results have shown that drawing speeds above 10 m/s significantly decrease the drawing force and, as a consequence, the friction effect on the interface. The best results have been achieved in the combinations of the lower die angle (2β = 14°) with drawing speeds between 17 and 18 m/s with both types of lubricants used, obtaining the lower values of the friction coefficient between µ = 0.10–0.15 with the lubricant type D (Agip S234-60 oil at 7% concentration). It has been found that those tests carried out with dies with a smaller approach angle have generally made it possible to obtain better qualities in the final product. Additionally, FEM simulations have been done to analyse those cases with the lower values of µ, throwing values of Fd that are consistent with those measured in the experimental setting and allowing to better understand the behavior of the material as it passes through the die.