The influence of flow patterns, generated by die profiles designed in accordance with the concept of constant rate of homogeneous strain increments, on the characteristics of the cold plug tube-drawing process is investigated. The effect of pass geometries, producing decelerated, uniform and accelerated rates of flow, is to reduce substantially the strain-redundancy factor by comparison with that for ‘standard’ industrial tools. The choice of one of these rates of flow will affect the magnitudes of the drawing stresses, die pressures and plug loads, on the one hand, and the pattern and levels of residual stresses generated, on the other. The relationships between these parameters and the ordered patterns of flow are discussed in relation to the copper tubing used, for convenience, in this investigation.