ROLLING MILLS

Contents Page
Introduction 136
WN & WSN Series - Rolling Devices 138
WSR & WST Series - Rolling Devices 139
WSE Series - Rolling Devices 140
nc 1

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WN, WF & WA Series - Rolling Heads 140 e

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WB, WKA, WR & WT Series - Rolling Heads 141
SMH & SMH-Pi Series - Spoolers 142
Rolling Mills

Horizontal & Vertical Payoffs 143

Other Components 144
Applications & Specific Product Examples 144

Rolling Mills
From complete production lines to individual component parts, Techna can supply rolling mills for the production of
shaped, flat and round profile wires.
With over 70 years experience in the field, Fuhr Rolling Mills have perfected the technology of rolling complex profiles to
within ±0.002mm accuracy.

Auxiliary
Control Panel Dancer Control Dancer Control
RE1300 Inline RE830 Universal Profile Rolling
Measurement Mill WST175-Mo

Horizontal Spooler
SMH1000-Mo/0
Precision
Wire Guiding
Double Drum
Capstan ZMH600
Moveable Main
Control Panel
Inline
Measurement
Dancer Control
Universal Profile Rolling Machine RE830

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Rolling Mills
Fully self-calibrating systems with integrated measurement and auto-adjusting rolls are
possible, giving repeatability and reducing the reliance on operator skill for quality product.
Machine components are secured to a modular machine-bed which is fully contained to allow
recycling of rolling lubricants. Extraction systems can be added to catch vaporised coolant.
Turnkey operation is standard, with state-of-the-art CNC controls, programming recipes and
process visualisation. A sliding control panel allows observation and control of the production
at any point. Interlocked safety fencing is also available.
Line speeds can be up to 1,000m/min, reducing the payback period of the investment by
allowing for high production volumes.

Rounding Rolling
Mill WSE150-Mo
2-High Rolling
Mill WSR225-Mo
Encapsulation
with Dust Extraction

Dancer Control
RE830

Horizontal Spool Payoff

SMH1000-Mo

Inline Measurement Straightening Unit

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Rolling Devices
Each design of rolling mill can be offered with the basic configuration of undriven rolls and manual adjustment. Additional options are
available for roll force measurement, lubrication systems, high-precision step motor control for roll position, wire guides and individual
rotary drive on each roll.

WN Series - Profiles
Rolling Mills

The WN Series is the standard design for producing profiles with 4 adjustable
rolls. They are used when profile wires need to be produced economically and
normal levels of precision are sufficient. This series provides the largest 4-roll
profiling mill available on the market.
In the development of the WN profile rolling mill, great emphasis was placed on
fast set-up in order to meet the requirements of flexible production. Rolling mills
of type WN are robust, require little maintenance and are designed for operation
in tough, demanding environments.

Order Ref. Roll Diameter (mm) Max. Roll Width (mm) Rolling Force (kN)
WN2 100 - 110 25 20
WN4 125 - 140 30 40
WN8 160 - 180 40 100
WN10 235 - 260 55 250
WN12 290 - 320 64 450
WN14 360 - 400 90 650
WN16 460 - 500 110 1120

Square and Special Profiles

Trapezoid Profiles • Roll set specially
• Upper and lower roll shaped for the
as a special roll particular profile
• Side roll as universal roll • Automatic calibration

WSN Series - High Precision Profiles

The WSN range offers the highest levels of rolling accuracy, with complex profiles
produced to within ±0.002mm. The high stiffness that is required to do this is
produced by the fundamental mechanical design concept, with surrounding frame
and linear roll positioning by a wedge mechanism with linear guides free of play.
In the development of the WSN profile rolling mill, special emphasis was placed on
short set-up times and reproducible settings in order to meet the requirements of
flexible production.
Rolling mills of WSN type impress with extremely low maintenance requirements.
All components are protected from corrosion by galvanization.

Order Ref. Roll Diameter (mm) Max. Roll Width (mm) Rolling Force (kN)
WSN 112 106 - 120 20 40
WSN 175 170 - 190 32 112
WSN 280 270 - 300 50 300
WSN 350 350 - 380 60 500

Square and Special Profiles

Trapezoid Profiles • Roll set specially
• Upper and lower roll shaped for the
as a special roll particular profile
• Side roll as universal roll • Automatic calibration

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WSR Series - Flat Wire
2-high rolling mills are used mainly for the production of flat wire from round, or
for further altering the profile of flat input wire.
Fuhr’s WSR Series offers higher stiffness than equivalent designs and results in
higher precision of produced profiles.
Unique to the WSR is the ability to oscillate the rolls crosswise to the wire during
rolling operation. This greatly increases the working life of the rolls as the entire
surface wears at an even rate.

Rolling Mills
Order Ref. Roll Diameter (mm) Max. Roll Width (mm) Rolling Force (kN)
WSR 112L 108 - 120 60 75
WSR 140XL 145 - 160 80 189
WSR 225 200 - 220 140 540
WSR 225XL 240 - 260 140 540
WSR 280 270 - 300 200 900
WSR 350XL 370 - 400 220 1300

Profile and Flat Wires

By the use of profiled rolls, the WSR Series 2-high mill can also be used to
produce profiled wire. The two rolls are aligned precisely to each other by the
use of axial roll adjustment by servomotors.
Plain rolls are used to produce flat wire. Here the rolls oscillate across the
wire to avoid track marks on the roll surfaces.

WST Series - Universal Profiling

(Turks Head)
The special feature of the WST profile rolling mill is the adjustability of the rolls
in the axial direction. Each roll can thus be adjusted radially and axially to give
the desired shape.
This special flexibility allows the WST type profile rolling mill to produce a
whole range of wires with a rectangular or square cross section using only one
standardized set of rolls. This saves the time, the cost and the labour required
to change the rolls for the desired wire profile.
The WST type rolling mills have extremely low maintenance requirements.
All components are protected from corrosion by galvanization.

Order Ref. Roll Diameter (mm) Max. Roll Width (mm) Rolling Force (kN)
WST 112 106 - 120 20 40
WST 175 170 - 190 32 112
WST 280 270 - 300 50 300
WST 350 350 - 380 60 500

Square and Rectangular Profiles Special Profiles

• All wire dimensions with a single set of rolls • Roll set specially shaped for the particular wire profile
• Specification of the wire dimension on the touch panel • Automatic calibration

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WSE Series - Precision Rounding
WSE Series are used to roll defined edge radii on rectangular profile wires (known as
rounding). The WSE range is characterized by two rolls on a vertical axis which can be
adjusted in and out to allow for a range of width profiles. They can also be adjusted
to switch between different groove profiles. Their use is almost always combined
with 2-high mills (type WSR) or profile rolling mills (WN, WSN or WST type).
In the development of the WSE profile rolling mill, special emphasis was placed on fast
reconfiguration and reproducible settings in order to meet the requirements of flexible
production. This mill exhibits high rigidity due to the double-sided roll mounting
Rolling Mills

and linear roll adjustment. WSE type rolling mills have extremely low maintenance
requirements. All components are protected from corrosion by galvanization.

Order Ref. Roll Diameter (mm) Max. Roll Width (mm) Rolling Force (kN)
WSE 96 96 52 25
WSE 150 150 80 60

Rolling Heads
WN Series - 4-Fold Profiling Head
Four rolls in one plane. Each roll is individually adjustable by hand. Optional
quick release for effortless wire threading. Universally applicable to many kinds
of profile wire.

A 3 B 3 C 3 D 3
1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2
4 4 4 4
A = Rectangular Profile with variable thickness C = Catenary Contact Wire
B = Special Profile produced with two rolls D = Collector Profile for DC motors

WF Series - Ribbing Head

Three rolls in one plane, individually adjustable by hand. Optional motorised
roll adjustment for all three rolls synchronously.
The WF Series roll heads are generally used for ribbing of reinforcement or
pre-stressed steels. They are also ideally suitable for the production of
triangular or hexagonal (in two steps) profiles.

WA Series - 6-Fold Profiling Head

Six rolls in one plane. Suitable for hexagonal wire or special profiles.

A B
1 2 1 2

6 3 6 3
5 4 5 4

A = Hexagonal Profile B = Special Profile (e.g. for Nails)

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WB Series - Reduction Head
Two roll pairs in two different planes process the wire sequentially.
WB Series roll heads are suitable e.g. for cross section reduction of round wire
with the so-called round – oval – round sequence.

1
1 2 1st Step = Round wire is rolled oval

Rolling Mills
2nd Step = Oval wire is rolled round

WKA Series - Reduction Roller Cassette

Two roll pairs in two different planes process the wire sequentially. Like WB
Series, but far more compact design. Suitable for cross section reduction of
round wires as an alternative to drawing dies.

1
1 2 1st Step = Round wire is rolled oval
2nd Step = Oval wire is rolled round

WR Series - Rounding Head

WR Series roll heads are used e.g. for rolling edge radii (so-called edging) on
flat wires. Roll adjustment by hand. Optional quick release for effortless
wire threading or motorised roll adjustment.
The combination of two WR Series roll heads produces the same possibilities
as the WB or WKA Series.

1 2

WT Series - Turks Head

Four rolls in one plane. Universal head for rolling rectangular and square
profiles with just one standard roll set, i.e. without changing rolls.
With the use of profiled rolls, special profiles can also be produced as
with the WN Series.

A B
3 3
1
1 A = Square Profile
2 2 B = Rectangular Profile
4 4

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Spoolers
Fuhr’s range of spoolers offer high precision wire winding and can be
used with a variety of spool designs and materials.
The production of coreless coils is also possible with the use of an
expanding mandrel.
Line speeds can be up to 1,000m/min.
Rolling Mills

Options available include:

• Static spool with traverse to control layer winding

• Traversing spool with pitch and stroke width control via control panel

• Dancers for speed synchronisation and tension regulation

• Precise material guiding - can include guidance of the wire to the

winding point on the reel via a moving guide wheel

• Faultless layer winding for square and rectangular wire cross sections

• Automatic measuring of empty reels via optical sensors

• Lifting tables for loading and unloading

SMH Series - Cantilever Spool Support

Single sided cantilever spoolers give easy access to change reels and are used when the bore of the reels are big enough for them to be
mounted on a stable spindle. This means that coil bore and weight must be in an appropriate relation to one another.

Gross Load Max. Reel Oscillation

Order Ref. Capacity (kg) Diameter (mm) Stroke (mm)
SMH630-Mo 1000 800 -
SMH630-Mo/O 1000 800 630
SMH1000-Mo 2000 1000 -
SMH1000-Mo/O 2000 1000 860
SMH1600-Mo 4000 1600 -
SMH1600-Mo/O 4000 1600 1290

SMH-Pi Series - 2 Sided Spool Support

2 sided spool support allows for larger payloads and higher winding speeds than SMH Series.

Gross Load Max. Reel Oscillation

Order Ref. Capacity (kg) Diameter (mm) Stroke (mm)
SMH630-Mo-Pi 1500 1000 -
SMH630-Mo/O-Pi 1500 1000 630
SMH1000-Mo-Pi 3000 1300 -
SMH1000-Mo/O-Pi 3000 1300 860
SMH1600-Mo-Pi 6000 1600 -
SMH1600-Mo/O-Pi 6000 1600 1290

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Payoffs
A range of Payoffs available to suit input spool type.

Horizontal Reel Payoff Rotating Coil

• With cantilever or double-sided reel Take-Up • Driven unwinding plate for mounting of wire carriers
• Speed controlled or with dancer regulation

Rolling Mills
• For reels from 500kg to 4,000kg
• Optionally with oscillation for straight input into the line, • Wire diameter 5 to 16mm
particularly useful if flat wires have to be rolled in two passes

Static Vertical Coil Payoff

• For pulling off round wire from pallets, carriers or out of drums
• Continuous operation by welding the ends of the wire together
Horizontal Coil Payoff while the line is running

• Driven carrier roller to support the wire coil

• Hydraulically adjusted bending rolls for adjustment of the wire
• Integrated roll adjustment mechanism with hydraulic setting
• Optionally available with a double Payoff
• Wire diameter 12 to 32mm

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Other Components
Drawing Machines Dancer Control Wire Measurement
• Diameter reduction of the incoming • For the regulation of the wire tension • Contact measurement using rolls for
wires to minimise goods in stock between the rolling mills width and thickness
• Lubrication with emulsion • Wire submersion cooling • Automatic wire dimension control by
• Optional water cooling of the • Wire path in accordance with comparison between target and
Rolling Mills

drawing drum dimensions: actual dimensions

a) Straight line operation for large • Trending diagram in operator panel
cross sections • Data export as csv file or via network
b) Deflection operation for small interface
cross sections

Applications
Fuhr’s rolling mills supplied by Techna are trusted by world leading manufacturers to produce a wide array of products. Rolled wire forms
a critical component of many modern day supply chains and must be produced economically with high repeatable precision. Products
manufactured on Fuhr rolling mills support a variety of major industries to the extent that it can be difficult to get into a car or even turn
on a light switch without involving a wire rolled in a Fuhr mill.

Automotive and Transport

Piston Ring
Profiled wires are rolled on Fuhr rolling mills for the production of these
key components, before being bent into piston rings. Micrometer levels of
precision as offered by our WSN series are required as the oil-film coating
these piston rings is less than a thousandth of a millimetre thick and
deviations from a given profile will change this value.

Thread Insert (Helicoil)

The rolling of high precision diamond shaped wire is the key to producing a
high quality threaded insert. These are used in very high volumes in a range
of industries including aviation (tens of thousands of thread inserts are
required per aircraft). Fuhr mills can produce the precision required even
at high line speeds, thus allowing high volume production on a single line.

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Starter Gear Ring
Fuhr rolling mills roll wire of medium carbon content into a profiled wire
with a trapezoidal cross section. From this profile wire, a ring is then bent
and welded. In further processing steps the rings are machined, the teeth
are cut, hardened and tempered.

Rolling Mills
Spiral Spring
Spiral springs are used in a range of applications in automotive production.
These include the roll-up function of seat belts and adjustment of the
backrest on front seats. Flat wires are rolled from high carbon steel wire
and the spring properties are generated either by the strain hardening
achieved in the rolling process (cold rolled springs for safety belts) or
from subsequent heat treatment (oil tempered seat inclination springs).

Wiper Blades
To distribute the contact pressure of a windscreen wiper blade evenly,
there are two thin, elastic stainless steel inserts in the rubber profile of
the blade. Fuhr rolling mills have been extensively used in this application,
producing both the stainless steel inserts of the wipers and the arch of
the single wiper blade, which are both rolled from round wire.

Clutch Spring
Dual mass flywheels are used on some vehicles between the crankshaft
and clutch. The two halves of this flywheel are connected together with
two or four circularly curved spiral pressure springs. To produce these,
round wire is slightly flattened by a rolling process on two sides before
entering the spring coiling machine, in order to reduce the unit length
of the springs without significantly reducing the spring force.

Retaining Clip (Circlip)

Demanding applications require circlips with very accurately defined
properties that cannot be achieved by the usual method of punching.
With Fuhr rolling mills, high carbon steel round wire is rolled into slightly
trapezoidal wire with flat faces and relatively sharp edges. Due to the
difference in circumference of the inner and outer faces, as the wire goes
through the final bending process by pre-rolling the wire into a trapezoidal
shape, the final shape after bending is returned to a rectangular cross section.

Drive Train (CVT)

The task of the CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) chain in a drive
train is the transfer of power from one pair of conical pulleys to the other.
Fuhr rolling mills are used to roll the bolts and the link plates used within
CVTs. Here, particularly great emphasis is placed on precision, since the
slightest error will have significant cumulative impact on the total length
of the chain due to the large number of chain links.

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Energy and Utilities
Continuously Transposed Conductor (CTC)
To improve efficiency and package size, the windings of electric motors,
generators and transformers are increasingly produced with rectangular
profile wire. This needs to be rolled from round copper wire to a high level
of accuracy to allow for insulation to be applied and give a tight winding.
Rolling Mills

Flexible Pipe Armouring

Special interlocking profiles are used to form the armouring that allows
undersea umbilical pipes to withstand massive pressures and safeguard the
operation of offshore platforms. The largest WN series Fuhr profile rolling
mills are best suited to this production due to the size of the profiles and
the stiffness of the steel grades used.

Photovoltaics
Fuhr provides mills for the rolling of PV interconnect ribbons. These
are used in the production PV modules by connecting the individual
component PV cells. They also roll the rectangular busbars that carry the
current produced from round copper wire.

Trolley Wire
This method of providing power to rail systems employs rolling mills
to reduce the cross section and increase the strength of the copper
conductor. Profiling is then done in another pass by a machine like the WN
series for the most economical production.

Medical Engineering
Superconductors
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) uses superconductors produced from
rectangular profile wires to give the higher packing density required in the
coils. Ideally, Fuhr type WST universal profile rolling machines are used for
this purpose, thereby dispensing with roll changes for the production of
different round wires.

Tooth Brace
The brackets glued to the tooth surface are produced from a specific
profiled wire produced by cold rolling. In addition the wires which then
join the brackets are formed from high strength stainless steel wires with
square cross-sections. These apply pressure to the brackets as well as
tensile and torsional forces.

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Implant
With Fuhr cold rolling technology, splints for the stabilization of bone
fractures are produced from stainless steel or titanium (see photo).
The so-called memory metals that are employed in stents for widening
coronary vessels are also brought into shape by cold rolling.

Rolling Mills
Spectacle Frame
Both the bridge as well as the lens holders are produced in the cold rolling
procedure from either stainless steel or titanium. This is in addition to the
spectacle hinges which are cut from longitudinally profiled wire.

Construction
Bridge Cable
Modern demands for improved performance have increasingly led to the
use of profiled wires in the bunching process. Fuhr mills have been the
name to trust in rolling mills for over 70 years.

Reinforced Steel Bar

In the early 1950s, engineer and company founder Karl Fuhr developed a
procedure for the ribbing of construction steel wire, marking the inception
of the cold rolling process for reinforcing steels. Fuhr now supply the latest
generation of rib roll heads as well as replacement rolls for this application.

Production Technology
Filter Screens
The triangle wire used in the production of these screens needs to be
rolled with precision to meet tight specification of the filter gap. Fuhr
WSN series offers this capability and can be offered with rolls that adjust
automatically to keep the wire within set tolerances.

Profiles Rail Guides

Production is done from coil to bar and replaces conventional single rod
manufacturing steps such as hot rolling, bar drawing and the intermediate
coating, cleaning and heat treatments. The high precision of these bars allows
direct downstream processing by induction hardening and profile grinding.

Bimetallic Saw Blades

Rolling saw edges from high speed steel for these parts offers a unique
challenge due to the high hardness value. Fuhr are experienced in working
with a range of materials and have the engineering skill to solve challenges.

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