Lilian Magalhães (asker) Sep 14, 2009:

The U.S. steel industry was thriving in 1952, and the maintenance department at
John A. Roebling's Sons Co. was scrambling to keep their wire drawing machines
running. Their production of cable for suspension bridges was constantly being
interrupted when the worn grooves in the flame-hardened cast iron drawmg blocks
became too deep to allow proper machine operation. Each time the blocks were removed
and cut down to eliminate the grooves, they wore out even sooner than they had
previously (the effects of flame-hardening gradually decrease beneaththe surface).
Welding rod salesman Eugene W. Klein was there on a routine sales visit when this
problem was brought to his attention. He suggested trying a hard-surfacing alloy that
was being used on earth-moving equipment, and welded the first wire drawing block by
hand in his garage. That block's vast superiority led first to the formation of a new
company, and then to the emergence of an entire industry to provide coatings for wiredrawing
equipment.
Although Mr. Klein was able to pioneer an automatic submerged are welding
process

Lilian Magalhães (asker) Sep 14, 2009:

wiredrawing block = sarilho de estirar/trefilar