Description

In this study an attempt to minimize the tensile strength deviation in high carbon steel wire rods manufactured by the forced air cooling, i.e., Stelmor cooling, was made. The effect of the packing density of wire rods on the cooling conveyor, which is often ignored in the consideration of the tensile strength deviation sources, was taken into special consideration. The simulation results for the packing density of wire rods on the cooling conveyor revealed that, regardless of wire rod size, the edge of the packed rings exhibited higher packing density than the center. In addition, it was found that the packing density at the edge of rings increases with increasing wire rod size. The redistribution of the forced air across the cooling conveyor based on the packing density simulation was performed via damper angle adjustment and its effect on reducing the tensile stength deviation was discussed.