A wire is a single usually cylindrical, flexible strand or rod of metal. Wires are used to bear mechanical loads or electricity and telecommunications signals. Wire is commonly formed by drawing the metal through a hole in a die or draw plate. Wire gauges come in various standard sizes, as expressed in terms of a gauge number. The term ‘wire’ is also used more loosely to refer to a bundle of such strands, as in “multi stranded wire”, which is more correctly termed a wire rope in mechanics, or a cable in electricity. Wire comes in solid core, stranded, or braided forms. Although usually circular in cross-section, wire can be made in square, hexagonal, flattened rectangular, or other cross-sections, either for decorative purposes, or for technical purposes such as high-efficiency voice coils in loudspeakers. Edge-wound coil springs, such as the Slinky toy, are made of special flattened wire.
Wire rod is rolled steel primarily of a circular cross section with a diameter of 4-16 mm in coils or bundles. Steel Wire rod is a long steel semi-finished product manufactured by hot rolling billets on continuous rolling mills. It has a round cross-section and is wound up in coils.
Steel wire rod is used as feedstock for the drawing of wire intended for different applications, as well as in the manufacture of screws, bolts, nails, mesh and reinforcing elements of reinforced concrete products.
