Niehoff has developed machines which cover all steps of non-ferrous metals wire production, from rod breakdown, multiwire drawing, annealing and galvanic plating all the way to super fine wire drawing. Their wire drawing machines are currently being used to produce copper, aluminium and their respective alloys wire, superconducting wire, bi-metals such as copper clad aluminium and steel, plated copper wire and other kinds of composite wire, as well as wire made of special non-ferrous materials.

The multi draft rod breakdown machine type M85 built in 1-wire and 2-wire versions, is by far the most popular machine of its kind in the world .Based on this successful model, the electronically controlled rod breakdown machines type MSM85 with individually driven capstans was introduceed in 1998

As the drawing capstans are individually driven, a minimised slip operation is possible resulting in wire of a high surface quality. It is also possible to work with different wire elongations for each draft to match the drawability of different wire materials.

Intermediate drawing machines for copper alloys from Niehoff are offered for 1 or 2 wires in tandem design. They offer advantages such as straight wire path, always the same bending direction without reverse bending throughout the machine, high bending radius for the wire.

A newly designed adjustable final die holder in two plains is essential for straight Cu alloy wire and with the new laser adjustment it is very operator-friendly. The MH type drawing machines with an RI continuous induction annealer with line speeds up to 25 m/s offer extremely homogeneous properties with very fine tolerances over the entire wire length 

The modular MKN101 super fine wire drawing machine rounds off the Niehoff range of drawing machines. It is designed for the production of wire made of copper, copper alloys and also precious metals (bond wires) and alloys with a final diameter of at least 0.014 mm. The MKN101 is based on a compact modular concept that enables extreme flexibility and scalable configurations (Fig. 4).

Continuous annealers are offered for rod breakdown, intermediate and fine wire drawing machines. Because of their low electrical and heat conduction characteristics, wires made of various copper alloys are very difficult to anneal in resistance continuous annealers designed for copper. The Niehoff B�hler NBM joint venture company has developed the RI inductive continuous annealers which operate on the basis of the induction principle. These annealers create wire with a fine grained, homogeneous microstructure that gives it very good processing and forming properties. The RI annealers ensure simple operation, because no carbon brushes, sliprings, belts, motors and drives are needed.