Soap Drawn Stainless Steel

[BMccarthy81]

At my company we precision grind stainless steel wire (304, 316)to tolerances of +/-.0002 of an inch with #2 cincinnatti centerless grinders (om/ae). the material that we use for inventory and most of our customer supplied material is soap drawn stock. We've always had a problem with the residue/soap that is on the surface of our wire. It gums up our machines and gets on the surface of our grinding wheels. I'd Like to know if there is a cleaning process that could remove this residue from our material without altering the physical attributes of our wire. Any input would be great. thank you.

 

[unclesyd]

The first thing I would do is discuss your problem with you supplier. They should be able to supply clean wire.

You can get with any industrial chemical cleaning supplier and request drawing compound cleaners. They are some very specific cleaners for these soap based drawing compounds.
Here is just one of several nationwide companies that carry a complete line cleaners and have represenetives across the country.

http://www.oakite.com/