Steel Profiling

Bekaert uses a variety of metals for profile cutting. We understand the properties and requirements of different metal types and adjust our steel profiling processes based on the metal's needs. We form our profiles from a variety of steels and non-ferrous metals, including:

• Stainless steel: Stainless steel is strong and ductile for strength and workability after cutting. It also effectively resists corrosion.
  
• High-carbon and low-carbon steel:Steel is a durable metal with a high strength-to-weight ratio. Profiled steel wire is ideal for applications requiring significant tensile strength.
• Aluminum: Aluminum resists corrosion and is ductile, conductive and strong.
• Brass: Brass is an ideal profiling metal because it's ductile and has reduced friction with high strength. It is common in heat exchange applications.
• Copper: Copper's properties, like its high ductility and malleability, make it an effective metal for profiling.

At Bekaert, we develop steel wire profiles through various steel profiling processes. Creating a profile means shaping material, and those configurations are possible through multiple methods, such as cold-rolling, cold-drawing and finished part services.

Bekaert uses cold-rolling to create shaped steel wire. Our cold-rolling method involves using the best steel and following major global standards such as those set by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). Cold-rolling for steel profiling promotes excellent surface quality, strength and precision.

Instead of using hot-rolling, cold-rolling uses ambient temperatures to achieve higher strength and hardness. This process also changes the steel's dimensions — it begins with a steel rod, which becomes elongated as it passes through a series of stands. Cold-rolling combined with heat treating the steel profile allows Bekaert to achieve your specific material requirements.

Cold-rolling for profiled wire offers several advantages. Cold-rolling produces steel that matches your specifications more precisely than other methods, down to tolerances of a thousandth of an inch. Plus, it improves the steel's performance and physical properties.

Cold-rolling can also reduce scrap material and tooling costs over other hot-rolling processes.

Bekaert uses cold-drawing to alter the shape and size of steel material. To cold-draw steel, we pull the steel through a turks head or carbide die. We have various multi-die, turks head and single-die capabilities to meet exact specifications. We can shape steel wire with cold-drawing or first process the metal through cold-rolling to enhance its properties.

Cold-drawing is beneficial for profiling steel. Finishing a rod with cold-drawing enhances the steel's properties and allows us to change its shape and reduce its size. Cold-drawing also creates profiled wire with smaller tolerances than similar methods, including complex and asymmetrical profiles with sharp corners with a radius of 0.127 millimeters.

After creating your shaped wire, Bekaert performs these finishing services to reduce lead times and eliminate the need for shipping to a third party. We complete our finished part services to your specifications. Our finishing services for steel profiling include:

• Cutting:We straighten and cut profiled wire to length using rotary arbor straighteners, high-precision cutters and impact cutters.
• Chamfering: Chamfering involves breaking the edge on the metal profile to create a slope.
• Surface finishing:Our surface finishing options include cleaning, batch heat treating, plating and isotropic finishing.
• Packaging:Bekaert can package your steel profile to your specifications.

Wire comes in countless dimensions and configurations. We can produce wire in various shapes, depending on your specifications and the material's final use. Our capabilities include flat wire, shaped wire and oil-tempered flat wire.

Bekaert can create flat profile wire from nearly any metal. Creating a flat wire involves drawing round wire to an ideal size, then using rolling techniques to flatten it. Available in various widths and thicknesses, flat wire is ideal for consumer, industrial and automotive applications due to its continuous coil, narrow width and close dimensional tolerances.

Steel profile wire is an essential part of many industrial and commercial products. Configurations for our shaped wire include:

• Sharp-edged squares and rectangles.
• Half-oval, half-round and D shapes.
• Trapezoids and triangles.
• Flat with natural edges and rounded sides.

We can also create steel profiles to your specifications upon request.

Shaped wire has many uses in manufacturing, such as:

• Exhaust clamps.
• Steering shafts.
• Valve collets.
• Wedge wires 
• Self-piercing fasteners 
• Hand tools.
• Equipment tines.

Oil tempering for flat wire involves heating the wire and then rapidly cooling it with a quenchant. Cooling hot wire and tempering with oil improve material properties by enhancing its strength and flexibility without making it brittle. Thus, oil-tempered flat wire is a common material for automotive, industrial and consumer applications.

Bekaert is the world's largest independent manufacturer of drawn and shaped steel wire products. Since 1880, we have provided wire profiling and more for various sectors. Partnering with us for steel profiles to specification offers these competitive advantages:

• One-stop shop capabilities: Bekaert can create unique shapes and profiles and handle every process, from the raw material to the finished product.
• Tailored shapes and sizes: We can give you a profiled wire that matches your exact specifications so you won't need to machine or shape the product yourself.
• High precision: Bekaert uses proven processes and methods to create shaped steel wire with tight tolerances and high accuracy.
• Improved intricacy: Profiling requires precision work, and at Bekaert, we take every detail into account. We follow every specification and work within even the tightest tolerances to ensure your shaped steel wire is exactly as expected.