Greetings from Toronto,

Peter, as you know annealing 6.5 mm wire is not quite standard, therefore machinery for such a dimension is usually not found in the general literature.

Also thanks for your suggestions regarding correctly posting, much appreciated.

To fully anneal 6.5 mm copper at 1m/sec a PlasmaAnnealer will require approx. 90 kW, for 2 m/sec 180 kW are required and so on. By now you are getting, however to rather high investment costs.

If at all possible, the best positioning of a PlasmaAnnealer would actually not be behind the Rod breakdown but at the entrance of the following process. This reduces the required speed and consequently the costs.

The quality of the finished product will be very clean, well controlled tensile and residual elongation. It is important to note that a PlasmaAnnealer does not only anneal but actually starts the process by cleaning the wire.

I would venture that no other method is capable to provide as good results as a PlasmaAnnealer.

For example tests with SiBz (CDA651) wire have shown a residual oxide layer of only 120 Angstrom after annealing with Plasma.

Best Regards,

Willy Hauer
Howar Equipment Inc.
ww.HowarEquipment.com

Hello Spectre (2007 Issue),

Richard, I really don't think Syncro exists any more excepting for spare parts and technical documentation. Please see: www.ceecomfg.com/cs_top.html

Best regards,
Peter J. Stewart-Hay
Principal
Stewart-Hay Associates
www.Stewart-Hay.com

Hi Peter,

When the rod annealing question came up I did a Google search fro Syncro wire drawing and got Winget Syncro. Honestly I did not read all of the text but the pictures looked like Syncro tandem machines.

I thought that Ceeco had bought them and then let them fade away. Unfortunate - Vaughn and Syncro made a lot of good machines.

rb

Hello again Richard,

Winget Syncro

You are exactly right, Winget Syncro (Cable Machinery Spares Ltd) (British) is still manufacturing and marketing what seems to be Syncro machines and that is the result of an agreement with the Syncro Machine Company in 1948. The reason I said "seems" is because I have no idea how Winget-Syncro modified the design of these machines over the years. Strange (at least to me) to see that the Winget-Syncro machines were sold all over the world just as the Syncro machines were. Thus they could have been in competition. Some former Syncro machines are noticeably absent from the Winget Syncro offering. The first that came to mind was the very popular 18T10.

Winget Syncro does not seem to manufacture an in-line annealer capable of handling 6.5 mm diameter copper conductor although they may supply one under special order.

Ceeco-Syncro

Here is the way I understand the Syncro Machine Company history with Ceeco. Perhaps others will correct or fill in the blanks.

In the early 1970s there was a large demand for wire drawing and annealing machinery. Ceeco did not build that type of equipment. On November 14, 1973 Andre Varga (President, Ceeco), George L. Morris, Paul A. Oberbeck and George H. Wadsworth agreed that Ceeco would acquire the money loosing Syncro Machine Company (Perth Amboy, New Jersey).

By 1975 Syncro Machine was turned around and began to operate profitably.

In 1995 Nokia-Maillefer (later Nextrom) acquired Ceeco.

In 2001 Nextrom Canada re-assumed the Ceeco name in Toronto and in late 2002 December Nextrom Holding SA announced the closure of Ceeco. Later Bartell bought what remained of Ceeco and as I previously mentioned, they still provide spare parts and technical documentation.

Not sure of when Syncro (Perth, Amboy New Jersey) faded away but I suspect it was after 1995.

Best Regards
Peter J. Stewart-Hay
Principal
Stewart-Hay Associates
www.Stewart-Hay.com

Greetings from Toronto,

Ceeco was actually purchased by Noki-Maillefer in the fall of 1996. Syncro (by then part of Nextrom Inc.) was put up for sale early 1999, but possible deals fell apart by mid ’99.

Nextrom terminated most people and moved drawings to Toronto. The building and other assets were sold subsequently.

Ceeco Machinery was put up for sale in 2002 and purchased by Bartell late 2002 and officially taken over by Jan. 2003

Ceeco still provides spares and service for Syncro machines.

Best Regards,
Willy Hauer
Howar Equipment Inc.
www.HowarEquipment.com

Since we are talking old times, what happened to the guy that owned Cook machinery (Fred Krafft). Also was the George Morris you mentioned part of the Morris family that originally owned Syncro?