PRESS RELEASE
14 March 1997
New low friction wire
makes environmental sense

A new resistance wire has been introduced by Swedish-based manufacturer of electrical resistance and high temperature materials, Kanthal AB. The new wire, called Low Friction, uses a modified surface structure to reduce friction enough to eliminate the need for lubrication during coiling and other forming operations. This means, says the manufacturer, that the need to clean with the environmentally harmful trichlor-ethylene, or using other organic solvent-based methods, has been completely eliminated.

In conventional coil manufacturing, the forming process normally requires that an oil-based lubricant is used on the surface of the wire to reduce friction. Friction damage can cause the wire to become scratched and the coil to get large pitch variations. This leads to uneven temperature distribution and reduces the coil’s effective lifetime. If a lubricant is used, it has to be cleaned off using the environmentally harmful chemical trichlorethylene. However, by using the new Low Friction wire, the forming process can be carried out lubrication-free.
”The Low Friction wire provides huge savings for the manufacturers”, says Helena Johansson, project manager at Kanthal R&D. ”The environmental impact of the coil manu-facturing process has also been greatly reduced. This is important in light of the problems involved when using trichlorethylene.”
The new material means that a more uniform and higher production quality is possible with fewer steps needed in the production process. Tests have shown that it also has identical corrosion and oxidation properties to those of standard Kanthal and Nikrothal alloys.
In high temperature applications, where a very clean surface is required, such as in the making of tubular elements, the wire can simply be cleaned in water at a temperature of about 90°C.
As the cleaning process is simplified, production times for manufacturing elements are greatly reduced compared to conventional methods.
The new low friction surface treatment will soon be available as an option to all Kanthal’s resistance heating alloys.

Caption:
A new Low Friction resistance wire from Kanthal AB does not need lubrication during coiling or other forming operations. This means, says the manufacturer, fewer steps in production and that the need to clean with the environmentally harmful trichlorethylene has been completely eliminated.



For further information contact:
The Kanthal Corporation
Victor Vanguele
Bethel, Ct, USA
Tel: +1 203 744 14 40
Fax: +1 203 748 22 29
or
Kanthal Ltd
Richard Fareham
Stoke-on-Trent, UK
Tel: +44 1782 22 48 00
Fax: +44 1782 20 26 06
or
Kanthal Austrailia Pty ltd
Att: Graham Stahnke
Smithfield, Australia
Tel: +61 2 604 57 11
Fax: +61 2 609 75 14
or
Kanthal Trading Australasia Ltd
Peter D Turner
Auckland, New Zealand
Tel: +64 9 626 41 51
Fax: +64 9 626 27 95
or
Kanthal Electroheat (HK) Ltd
Turner Chu
Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2735 09 33
Fax: +852 2735 72 38

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