Strip manufactured to special flatness and thickness tolerances for use in electrical variable condensers.

The phenomenon of liquid moving in a small interstice due to surface tension. This phenomenon allows liquid to wick upward inside a cable if the ends are not sealed.

The combination force, adhesion and cohesion, which causes liquids, including molten metals, to flow between very closely spaced solid surfaces, even against gravity.

A type of steel produced by either covering the ingot mold with a heavy metal cap or by an addition of aluminum or ferrosilicon to the top of the molten steel. This causes the steel on the surface to solidify rapidly, limits the time of gas evolution and prevents the formation of an excessive number of gas voids within the ingot.

A power-driven parallel or slight­ly tapered drum that often takes the shape of a large pulley wheel (sheave), mounted on a horizontal or vertical shaft, used for pulling wire or cable at a constant speed. Also known as a “draw block” or “block.”

The diameter of a capstan that touches the wire or cable. For wiredrawing, this is a critical dimension of the capstan, or draw block, to maintain proper path-to-die alignment.

A design where the capstan’s circumferential, or peripheral, speed is greater than the wire speed resulting in slippage of the wire on the capstan.

Sheaves made from hard ceramic materials that are used in a wiredrawing machine to pull the wire through the dies.

A compound of carbon with one or more metallic elements such as iron chromium, tungsten, etc. Very hard and brittle.

Die nibs used in the wiredrawing process that are made of tungsten carbide material.

Rolls used in wire flattening, especially for rolling higher tensile material. The shell of the roll is made from tungsten carbide.

A testing instrument used for rapid determination of the carbon content of steel, using a specially cast sample.

A nonmetallic element that is the principal hardening element present in all steels. In general, increased carbon content reduces ductility but increases tensile strength and the ability of the steel to harden when cooled rapidly from elevated temperatures. At temperatures below 700°C, carbon is present in steel as iron carbide, cementite, Fe3C. The cementite forms lamellae, which “reinforces” the iron. This explains why a steel with a high-carbon content is harder than one with a low-carbon content. Generally, 0.05 to 0.25% is considered low-carbon steel, 0.25 to 0.5% is medium-carbon and 0.5 to 0.9% is high-carbon. The mixture of ferrite and cementite in a grain is called pearlite. Ductility and weldability decrease with increasing carbon content. Austenite can dissolve up to 2% carbon. When cooled in water or oil, carbon stays in a supersaturated solution of martensite.

A black soot-like pigment, which is widely added to cable polymers to improve physical characteristics such as weathering ability, color and electrical conductivity. It is formed by the incomplete combustion or thermal cracking of a hydrocarbon material. Nearly all carbon black is made by the “oil furnace” process, whereby an aromatic feedstock is atomized and fed into a hot flame to produce “fluffy” carbon black.

A brazing technique that uses silver solder to join wire ends that are heated between two rectangular electric-heated carbon electrode blocks. The silver solder alloy includes 80 percent copper, 15 percent silver and 5 percent phosphorous. The alloy melts at 640°C (1185°F) and has a flow point of 704°C (1300°F). This process requires no flux to produce optimum brazed joints.

A steel alloy, typically 1 percent carbon and 1 percent chromium, which is used for ball and roller bearings. The chromium is the only alloying element present in substantial quantity.

Material that forms on wire either as a result of the charring action that heat has on the wiredrawing lubricant during continuous annealing, or through an excessive amount of hydrocarbon-bearing gas present in the atmosphere during pot annealing. The term may also be used to describe the effects seen when material is over-pickled, permitting the release of carbon from the areas of pickled virgin metal upon the cleaned surface.

Steel having no specified minimum quantity for any alloying element, other than the commonly accepted amounts of manganese, silicon and copper, or the following maximum contents (manganese 1.65%, silicon 0.60%, copper 0.6%) and only an incidental amount of any element other than carbon, silicon, manganese, copper, sulfur and phosphorous. The term is used to distinguish “ordinary steel” from alloy steel.

See Total Carbon.

A process in which a ferrous metal is case-hardened by being heated in a gaseous atmosphere. The alloy absorbs carbon and nitrogen simultaneously by the surface, and by diffusion, creates a concentration gradient. The material is then cooled at a rate that will produce desired properties.