The wire rod is a hot rolled mild steel product, produced from a billet or mild steel. Wire rod is produced by warm rolling the billets on special, continuous rolling mills. A wire rod is more or less a long product formed into coils after which they are used as semi-products. Almost all the products of the steel industry cannot be classified into a lot of categories but that differs in the case of wire rod as they can be classified into several groups. Depending upon the chemical analysis and on the kind of use, the wire rod can be classified into the following categories – low carbon wire rod, middle\ high content carbon wire rod, welding wire and wire rod from special steel. A low carbon wire rod is used for the production of wire mesh for the construction industry and the production of drawn wire. Middle\ high content carbon wire rod is used for the production of drawn wire and wire rod from special steel is used for the processing in forging, drawing or press-working.
Some important uses of wire rods are general- purpose wires, industrial wires, electrode wires, agriculture wires, vineyard wires, earth wires, fasteners, bolts, rivets, screws for general purposes and also for production of automobile components like screws, fasteners, bush, spline, socket, connection rod, gear, engine shaft, spindles, wire ropes and coil springs. The latest technology has helped in the production of high quality and dimensional precision wire rods. Wire rod mills are used to reheat and roll steel billets into wire rods. The latest technology made wire rod mills are of very high speed which enables rolling of smaller dimensions at high production rates while keeping investments and operating costs at reasonable levels.