Device for direct annealing of metal wire leaving an operating machine

Device for annealing metal wire leaving an operating machine, comprising at least one drum with parallel axes supported inside a sealed heating chamber with a heated inert-fluid production source, said chamber being provided with a hermetically sealed inlet for supplying metal wire to said heating chamber, said drums being designed to heat the wire by direct conduction and subjected to the action of heating devices acting internally or externally to heat at least their cylindrical surfaces up to a temperature sufficient to achieve annealing of the metal wire coiled around them, and being provided externally with one or more circumferential grooves able to receive the wire coiled around them;

• a circuit for closed-loop circulation and heating of the inert fluid in the heating chamber and for evacuation of the air contained therein at the beginning of the operating cycle, comprising an aspirator-compressor connected directly at its inlet with the heating chamber and at its outlet with a heat exchanger, the outlet of which is connected in its turn with the heating chamber, as well as a valve disposed in the pipe connecting the aspirator-compressor to the heat exchanger, able, in a first position, to provide said connection and, in a second position, to place the aspirator-compressor in communication with the outside atmosphere;
• a cooling chamber, connected to the heating chamber, containing a cooling fluid, provided with a hermetically sealed outlet for outward passage of the metal wire;
• and means for drying the metal wire disposed downstream of said cooling chamber outlet for the wire.