This term applies to welding wire joints in a product such as a fabric or screen. The current is allowed to flow through approximately one half of the wire joints via a copper back-up block and through the balance of wires in contact to complete the circuit. This enables every pair of welds to be com­pleted for only a little more than the current required when direct welding single joints.

Welding a closely defined spot. This is accomplished by holding together the parts to be welded together under mechanical pressure between two electrodes, through which a current is passed for a pre-set period.

Connections between two parts. A typical example is the joining of ends of two coils together by butt-welding the leading end of a second coil with the trailing end of the first coil.

See Wiredrawing, Wet.

An installation directly buried in the earth, exposed to the weather, or in an area subject to saturation with water or other liquids at any time.

A white film, often known as “white rust,” which forms on zinc and on galvanized surfaces after exposure to moisture. The film is a mixture of zinc carbonate and zinc hydroxide. Chromate treatments help counter it but tend to discolor the surface, producing a greenish-yellow film.

For steel products, the term refers to wire drawn with a liquid lubricant, usually with a light viscosity oil but often with a water-base fluid. One of the main objectives is to obtain a bright polished finish. Such wire may not necessarily be wet drawn from the “soft” condition to finished size. According to the tensile requirements in the finished wire, the gap that may exist between the size at which the wire is heat-treated and the size at which wet drawing can commence has to be bridged by dry drawing. Any soap or similar deposits on the wire must then be removed during the preparations before the final wet drawing. For nonferrous products, almost all wires are drawn wet starting with rod breakdown to the smallest fine wire, most aluminum is drawn with an oil while others are drawn with water base fluids.

1) The ability of a material to absorb moisture. 2) The ability of a fluid to spread over the surface upon which it is applied, to “wet” it with a uniform film.

A product added to a process solution to change the fluid’s surface tension that allows the fluid to spread over the surface upon which it is in contact, and enhance the action of the base fluid in which the wetting agent is added.

See Bridge.

A type of casting mechanism for continuous casting operations where the mold is created by a groove in a casting wheel sealed over with a steel band belt.

A heat treatment process carried out on pickled steel with the objective of eliminating the hydrogen that has entered the steel during the pickling operation and thus removing any tendency to hydrogen embrittlement. See Wire, Bright Annealed.

1) A general term covering alloys that are based on tin, lead or antimony, such as bearing, type and Babbitt metals. 2) A copper matte of about 77% Cu obtained from the smelting of sulfide copper ores.

See Vitriol.

See Wet Storage Stain.

Capillary action of a liquid, allowing flow along the channels of the base material. For example, the flow of solder along the strands and under the insulation of stranded lead wire.

A microstructure resulting when steels are cooled at a critical rate from extremely high temperatures. It is a precipitation process that may also occur in nonferrous alloys, as for example, those based upon aluminum or titanium. In steels, it consists of ferrite and pearlite and has a cross-hatched appearance due to the ferrite having formed along certain crystallographic planes.

The quotient of the thermal conductivity divided by the electrical conductivity. This ratio can be used to predict one of these properties when the other is known, since the ratio is approximately constant for most pure metals.

See Bridge.

See Twist.