A copper wire drawing machine uses a series of dies to reduce the diameter of copper wire through controlled drawing force. During this process, the drawing section and winding or rewinding sections need to operate at coordinated speeds to maintain stable wire movement and production efficiency.
An AC motor drive provides adjustable motor speed and torque control for the drawing and winding sections. By coordinating the motor speed of each section, the wire drawing machine can maintain the required drawing speed while matching the winding and rewinding speed to the changing wire diameter.
A typical copper wire drawing machine consists of three main sections: winding, drawing and rewinding:
The rewinding section is particularly important because its rotational speed changes as the coil diameter increases. The control system therefore needs to continuously match the winding speed with the linear drawing speed.
For this reason, AC drives for wire drawing machines need to provide stable speed regulation, coordinated motor control and appropriate PID or feedback functions according to the machine configuration.
A complete wire drawing machine AC drive solution needs to coordinate the drawing motor with the winding and rewinding motors. The required drive configuration depends on the machine structure, motor rating, control method and whether an oscillating bar is used.
For standard applications, a general-purpose AC drive can provide the required variable-speed motor control. For applications requiring more precise speed, torque or feedback control, a high-performance AC drive can be selected.
GTAKE provides GK620 General-purpose AC Drive and GK820 High-performance AC Drive platforms for different levels of motor-control requirements in industrial machinery. GK620 supports V/f and sensorless vector control, while GK820 supports V/f, sensorless vector and closed-loop vector control with encoder feedback.
A wire drawing machine VFD or AC motor drive needs to be selected according to the actual motor and process requirements rather than only the machine name.
Key selection factors include:
For applications requiring advanced speed and torque control, the GK820 High-performance AC Drive supports sensorless vector and closed-loop vector control, encoder feedback, PID and other control functions.
For more general motor-control requirements, the GK620 General-purpose AC Drive provides V/f and sensorless vector control and is positioned by GTAKE for a broad range of industrial machinery applications.
The main purpose of using an AC drive for a wire drawing machine is to coordinate motor speed and torque with the requirements of the drawing process.
A properly configured wire drawing machine VFD can help:
For machine builders and system integrators, the appropriate AC motor drive should be selected according to the motor rating, process speed, feedback configuration and required control performance.
According to the drawing process, different types of wire drawing machines can be used to reduce the diameter of copper wire step by step. The required AC drive configuration can be selected according to the drawing speed, motor power, wire diameter and machine structure.
The basic control principle of these four types of copper wire drawing machines is similar. Depending on the machine configuration, two or more AC drives can be used to control the drawing and winding sections.
Rewinding is generally passive. Because the power requirement of the winding and rewinding sections can be relatively low in some machine configurations, a torque motor may be used for the rewinding section according to the machine design and cost requirements.
With oscillating bar |
Without oscillating bar |
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With oscillating bar, the following two can be divided:
There are two main control approaches for a wire drawing machine with an oscillating bar:
With feedforward and rolling-diameter calculation:
Winding and rewinding revolving speed = main engine linear speed / winding and rewinding diameter / 3.14 / reduction ratio + PID output.
This represents the traditional control scheme.
Without feedforward and without rolling-diameter calculation:
The AC drive performs the PID control internally. The main engine does not need to provide a feedforward signal, and the control system does not need to continuously calculate the winding diameter.
This simplifies the control architecture compared with the traditional scheme.
The selection should be based on the machine structure, required wire tension control, motor configuration and control architecture.
For a wire drawing machine without an oscillating bar, the control system can use the linear speed of the main constant-speed wheel as the speed reference and the rewinding tachometer wheel as the feedback signal.
The control process can be configured as follows:
The GK820 is designed for demanding motor-control applications requiring precise speed control, torque control and fast response. It supports sensorless and closed-loop vector control, encoder feedback and process PID functions.
Compare with the scheme with oscillating bar, it has the following advantages:
Compared with a wire drawing machine with an oscillating bar, the no-oscillating-bar configuration can provide the following potential advantages when properly matched to the machine design:
A wire drawing machine without an oscillating bar can be configured with either single winding or double winding according to the production requirements.
A single coiling block is used for winding. The motor is controlled by an AC drive according to the required winding speed and machine configuration.
Two coiling blocks are used for winding at the same time. One host machine drives two winding motors, with the mechanical structure using two sets of cone-pulley molds.
The double-winding configuration can increase production capacity within the same overall investment range and reduce the floor space required compared with installing two independent machines.
The two winding sections can operate independently. If one winding section is stopped or requires maintenance, the other section can continue operating according to the machine’s control architecture.
GK620 General-purpose AC Drive supports V/f and sensorless vector control and is designed for flexible motor speed control across a wide range of industrial machinery.
GK820 High-performance AC Drive is designed for more demanding applications requiring precise speed and torque control, fast response, encoder feedback and closed-loop vector control.
For a copper wire drawing machine, the appropriate AC drive should be selected according to motor power, speed requirements, tension-control method, feedback configuration and overall machine architecture.
