How to Buy Steel Wire Rod

Posted by Cama Steel on March 12th, 2020

What is steel wire rod?

• Steel wire rods are almost identical to GI or galvanized iron wires.
• They look exactly the same but are made from different materials and the way each is manufactured also varies.
• Steel wire rods are made from billets

How is steel wire rod manufactured?

• Billets are what can be considered as semi-finished metal pieces. They need to be processed further to become valued products.
• Billets usually come in the form of square, circle, or rectangle which has areas below 36 sq. inches. Wire rods are produced using the process called extrusion. The billets are pushed through a die where they are molded into whatever the shape of the die opening is.
• The dies, which can be circular, rectangular, or square-shaped, have a usual diameter from 5 – 42 millimeters.
• The billets are not pre-heated before going through the dies but are heated as they are passing within the molds.
• At the end of extrusion process, the semi-finished wire rods then go through a specialized winder which winds the wire rods into loose coil stacks.
• Since the freshly winded wire rods are still hot, they are cooled using either air or forced cooling process. The forced cooling process makes use of large fans, while the other one uses the surrounding air without the use of any cooling machine.
• The wire rods are glowing red hot after the whole extrusion and winding process which is why accelerated cooling is more preferred, or else a lengthy amount of cooling time will be required.

What are the main specifications for steel wire rods?

• Wire rods are produced with different grades. These grades each have their own specifications and corresponding applications. These specifications help the end user or other manufacturers in choosing which grade of wire rods to purchase.
• For an SAE 1008 wire rod, grades include Q195, Q215, Q235, 1006B, 1008B, 1012B, 1017B, and 1018B. The Q195, Q215, Q235 grades are used primarily in the field of construction and drawing wires.
  The diameter sizes of each grade are as follows:

GRADE DIAMETER (Φ)
Q195 5.5 mm – 16 mm
Q215 5.5 mm – 16 mm
Q235 5.5 mm – 16 mm
1006B 5.5 mm – 16 mm
1008B 5.5 mm – 16 mm
1012B 5.5 mm – 16 mm
1017B 5.5 mm – 16 mm
1018B 5.5 mm – 16 mm

What are the Chemical Composition and Mechanical Properties of typical steel wire rod?

A typical steel wire rod has a chemical composition of the following:

• Carbon
• Manganese
• Silicon
• Phosphorous
  Sulfur
• Boron

Its mechanical properties are as follows:

GRADE Yield Strength Tensile Strength

Q195 ≥195 315 - 430Mpa
Q235 ≥235 375 - 500Mpa
SAE1006 ≥210 210 - 370 Mpa
SAE1008 ≥195 315 - 430Mpa

What are the main applications of steel wire rod?

• Steel wire rods have many potential applications, mainly wire drawing, construction uses, and tools manufacturing.
• GI or galvanized iron wires are actually made from steel wire rods which have been coated by zinc in order to prevent it from corrosion and rusting.
• Steel wire rods are also used to manufacture nails and other construction materials.

Buy steel wire rod
At Camasteel, we have various types of steel wire rod for sale. Please contact us for the latest steel wire rod prices