How to choose flux-cored wire equipment line ?
Flux-cored welding wire equipment refers to a production line consisting of a series of mechanical equipment specifically used to produce flux-cored welding wire. Flux-cored wire is an important welding material, which is composed of a metal sheath (usually mild steel or stainless steel strip) wrapped with a flux (powder) mixture.
A complete flux-cored welding wire production line usually includes the following main equipment and links:
Steel strip processing equipment：
Uncoiler: Used to unwind coiled metal strip (steel strip, stainless steel strip, etc.).
Shear-and-Butt Welder: Welds the tail end of the previous coil to the leading end of the next coil, enabling continuous production.
Storage Looper: Stores a certain length of strip during shearing and butt welding, ensuring continuous operation of subsequent processes without downtime due to welding.
Cleaning/Degreasing Equipment: Removes oil, oxides, and other impurities from the surface of the strip to ensure the quality of subsequent forming, filling, and welding.
Edging Mill: Precisely controls the width of the strip.
Smoothing Mill: Eliminates bends or undulations in the strip, ensuring a flat surface before entering the forming machine.
Powder Handling and Filling Equipment:
Powder Mixing System: This system includes multiple silos (for storing powders of varying composition), a weighing system (for accurately measuring the proportions of the various powders), and a mixer (for uniformly mixing the various powders). This is a critical component for ensuring welding wire properties (such as arc stability, slag coverage, slag releasability, mechanical properties, and crack resistance).
Powder Drying/Dehumidification System: This system strictly controls the moisture content of the powder to prevent clumping and compromise weld quality.
Powder Conveying System: This system transports the mixed powder to the filling station.
The filling station: Located at the inlet of the forming unit, this system accurately, continuously, and stably fills the pre-bent U-shaped steel strip with powder. The filling amount must be precisely controlled.
Forming and Closing Equipment:
The forming unit is the core equipment in the flux-cored wire production line. It consists of a series of precision rollers, typically including:
Preforming rollers: Gradually bend the flat steel strip into a U-shape.
Filling area: Fills the U-shaped groove with flux powder.
Closing rollers: Gradually close the two sides of the U-shaped groove, encapsulating the flux powder, ultimately forming an O-shaped (circular cross-section) or similar shape (such as an E-shaped, T-shaped, or other special-shaped cross-sections). The forming process must ensure that the edges of the steel strip are tightly closed to prevent flux powder leakage.
The forming process is typically accompanied by:
Inline compaction: This device provides moderate compaction of the powder filler during the closing process, increasing the fill density.
Laser welding or TIG welding equipment: For flux-cored wires requiring extremely high sealing properties (such as those used for stainless steel or special alloys), laser or TIG welding is used immediately after the initial closing process to completely seal the seam (seamless flux-cored wire). This step is omitted for standard seamed wires.
Drawing and Reduction Equipment:
Wire Drawing Machine: This is another core piece of equipment. The "thick" wire (typically around 3-6mm in diameter) passes through multiple drawing dies, gradually reducing it to the final diameter (e.g., 0.8mm, 1.0mm, 1.2mm, 1.4mm, 1.6mm, etc.).
Drawing Dies: Carbide dies or polycrystalline diamond dies are typically used.
Wire Drawing Lubrication System: Provides lubrication and cooling during the drawing process, reducing die wear and wire surface damage.
Tension Control System: Precisely controls the tension during each drawing pass to ensure wire dimensional accuracy and surface quality, and prevent wire breakage.
Heat Treatment Equipment:
Annealing Furnaces: The drawing process causes work hardening of the wire. For certain materials (especially stainless steel) or wires requiring high flexibility, in-line or off-line annealing is required to relieve stress and restore plasticity. Tubular bright annealing furnaces are commonly used.
Surface Treatment and Coating Equipment:
Cleaning Equipment: Removes residual drawing lubricant from the wire surface after drawing and before annealing or before finishing.
Copper Coating Equipment: Most carbon steel and low-alloy steel flux-cored wires require copper coating. The copper coating serves the following purposes:
Rust Prevention: Protects the wire from rust during storage.
Improves Conductivity: Ensures stable current conduction during welding.
Lubrication: Reduces wire feed resistance.
Extends the life of the contact tip.
Drying equipment: Drying after cleaning or coating.
Winding and Packaging Equipment:
Wire Take-Up Machine: Winds the finished welding wire neatly and tightly onto a spool (reel). Controlling the take-up tension is crucial, affecting the tightness of the wire on the spool and the smoothness of subsequent wire feeding.
Spool Loading and Unloading Device: Automatically or semi-automatically loads and unloads empty or full spools.
Packaging Equipment: Moisture-proof packaging of full reels of welding wire (e.g., wrapping with plastic film, placing in plastic bags and vacuuming or filling with inert gas, boxing, etc.).
Auxiliary and Control Systems:
Process Control Systems: Modern production lines utilize PLC or DCS systems to centrally control all equipment operating parameters (speed, tension, temperature, fill volume, mix ratio, etc.), enabling automated production, data recording, and monitoring.
In-line Inspection Equipment: These may include laser diameter measuring instruments, surface defect detectors (eddy current or optical), and coating thickness gauges, used to monitor product quality in real time.
Dust Removal Systems: Collect dust during powder mixing and filling processes to protect the production environment and operator health.
Drive Systems: The motors and transmissions of each device.
