High-Performance Stainless Steel and Specialty Wire: How spring wire is made and process-controlled to reduce final part variation

摘要

The involved process of manufacturing precision stainless steel wire begins at the melt shop. The initial melt is composed of controlled scrap, processed ores and virgin pure metallic elements. When charged into a furnace, melting is accomplished by high-power electric arcs transferred from graphite electrodes. Once molten, the entire batch or heat is given a unique alphanumeric identity and tapped into a waiting preheated ladle for transfer to a secondary refining operation.