High performance machining of continuous metal fibers with cascaded multi-stage profile tools

Abstract

Metallic fibers are essential for applications in the chemical industry, the automotive industry for brake pads and, more recently, for the air conditioning modules. The most productive process to date for producing continuous fiber lines with fiber cross-sections between 50 and 150 µm is the application of cascaded multi-stage profile tools for cutting from semi-finished wire products. One challenge is the development of a technology for highly ductile materials made of aluminium, which are used as fiber materials in the area of refrigeration adsorbers. Preliminary studies have shown that high cutting speeds are necessary for machining.For this reason, a highly manually operated machine system was advanced to meet the requirements of high cutting speeds and to integrated a process monitoring system. For the first time, experimental investigations were able to show the interrelationships between set technology values and the effective machining forces for this process. Further investigations were done using the example of aluminium alloys 5019 for an analysis of a control system for wire breakage detection on the basis of force sensors.