The production process of wires and cables mainly includes three main steps: drawing, twisting, and wrapping, as follows:
Wire drawing: Wire drawing is the first process in cable production, which mainly involves drawing the raw material of the conductor through the die holes of the wire drawing machine to produce a single wire with the required cross-sectional shape and size. The drawing process is divided into single wire drawing and twisted drawing.
Twisting: In order to improve the flexibility and overall integrity of wires and cables, weaving two or more single wires together in the specified direction is called twisting. The twisting process includes conductor twisting, cable forming, weaving, steel wire armor, and winding.
Wrapping: According to different performance requirements for wires and cables, special equipment is used to wrap different materials on the outside of the conductor. The coating process includes extrusion packaging, longitudinal packaging, winding packaging, and immersion coating. Squeezing refers to using an extruder to squeeze a plastic insulation layer outside the conductor; Vertical wrapping is the process of wrapping a certain number of layers around the wire core with a vertical wrapping tape to fill the gaps between the layers; Wrapping refers to wrapping strip materials such as paper tape and mica tape around a conductor; Dip coating is the process of impregnating insulation paint or asphalt and other materials onto a wire core, which is then heated and cured in an oven.
In addition, the sheath is the external protective layer of wires and cables, and commonly used materials include polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, and halogen-free polyolefin.
Overall, the manufacturing process of wires and cables is very complex, involving multiple links and processes, each of which has strict quality control standards.