Removing crust of oxide from profiled wire rod

Claim 1

In the known process for the direct and continuous manufacture of copper wire rod starting from liquid metal, in which a bar is produced by continuous casting and conveyed while still hot to a rolling mill where the bar is rolled down into a wire rod in a plurality of roll passes, including a few early roll passes and several later roll passes, and in which process a crust of oxide is present on the surface of the rod being rolled down, the improvement which comprises removing the crust of oxide in at least one cleaning operation between the early roll passes by projecting a liquid selected from the group consisting of water and a rolling emulsion under a pressure of between 20 and 60 atmospheres against the periphery of the rod being rolled down, the flow of said liquid under pressure being less than 50 liters/minute per cleaning operation so as to avoid an appreciable cooling of the rod being rolled down between the early roll passes, and after the cleaning operation abruptly cooling the rod being rolled down before one of the later roll passes.