Black annealed baling wire

In the world of baling wire, there s no room for compromise. That s why we go above and beyond to ensure our baler wire meets the highest standards of quality and performance.

Baling Wire Direct controls every aspect of baling wire production and distribution, which allows us to give the best product, with the best customer experience, at the best prices.

While some suppliers (especially those who don’t control the manufacturing process) may manipulate wire gauge and weight to cut corners or inflate shipping costs, we take a different approach. Our dedication to quality control is unwavering, and we meticulously test our wire to ensure it performs to the highest standards.

Our process begins with tensile testing samples from every carrier, pushing them to their breaking point. Any carriers with failed wires are immediately removed, ensuring only the strongest and most reliable carrier wire gets shipped.

But our commitment to quality doesn t end there. We carefully spool the wire through a coiling machine and cut it into 50 or 100-lb boxes. These boxes are then palletized, banded, and shrink-wrapped, ensuring they arrive at your doorstep in pristine condition.

To make your experience even more seamless, our Autoship™ system keeps you informed every step of the way. You ll receive tracking information via your preferred contact method (email, text message). The entire process takes just 1-3 business days. 

With our set-and-forget reordering and invoicing, you ll get exactly what you need, when you need it, without sacrificing USA quality or customer service.

100% USA-made wire

When we make our annealed steel wire, we leave nothing to chance. Every step of our manufacturing process is done to the highest quality standards in the USA. From raw materials through the annealing process to quality testing, every stage of the manufacturing life cycle is done to rigorous protocols.

It all starts with a select family of melting plants where we purchase 100% American-made steel billets. Each is delivered with metallurgical traceability specs certifying chemical composition to meet the end product’s load and tensile strength. 

From there our 125-person production staff and five onsite engineers get to work.

First, the newly-formed carbon steel wire is descaled through mechanical reverse-bending. This gives a completely scale-free surface. Even better, mechanical descaling means we eliminate harsh, environmentally unsafe chemicals from the production process.

Next, the wire is drawn through a heavy-duty, bull-block continuous wire machine, and low-carbon (1018) grades are air-cooled to ensure consistent tensile strength. Then, it’s on to the annealing process.

Annealing is a heat treatment process that makes the wire more workable. It involves heating the steel above its recrystallization temperature, maintaining that temperature, and then cooling it.

The three carbon annealing cycles are known as recovery, recrystallization, and grain growth.

1. Recovery: softens the wire through the removal of primarily linear defects called dislocations. Each strand, measuring exactly 0.135 inches, is heated with natural gas in a fluidized sand furnace.
2. Recrystallization: deformed grains are replaced by a new set of defect-free grains that nucleate and grow until the original grains have been entirely consumed. This process occurs when the wire is heated above its recrystallization temperature (we heat our baling wire to 850 degrees Celcius). 
3. Grain growth: the microstructure continues to coarsen to reduce the material s total energy. 

The annealing process creates a uniform atomic structure, increases ductility, and reduces brittleness. The result: wire that is easy to use and durable.

After the wire is annealed, we apply a coat of wax to the finished product. This creates a beautiful surface finish and also protects the wire. The surface finish ensures that the wire never leaves a mess and always feeds smoothly in automatic baling machines.

What is annealed wire used for?

Annealed baling wire is used across many industries due to its increased flexibility and durability compared to non-annealed wire. The annealing production process enhances the wire s ductility and reduces its hardness, resulting in retained strength and added malleability that makes it ideal for applications requiring both.

• In recycling and waste management, annealed wire s durability allows it to securely contain bales of waste and recycled materials during transportation and storage.
• In the packaging industry, annealed wire is often used to bind multiple boxes into a single shipment, as its flexibility enables it to hold distinct shapes when tied.
• Agricultural operations use annealed wire for baling hay, given its strength and tie-ability.
• Heightened malleability also lends well to construction applications such as binding rebar together in concrete structures.

Thermal annealing creates a crossover material with a smooth surface, remarkable strength, and functional flexibility. This combination of attributes is why annealed baling wire has become the go-to wire for binding in recycling and other industries.

We sell black annealed wire in diameters from 9 to 12 gauge. Gauge is a common measurement of wire size. The larger the gauge, the smaller the wire’s diameter. This might seem counterintuitive, but it s rooted in the manufacturing process of the wire.

Wire is made by drawing a metal rod through a series of dies, each with a hole slightly smaller than the last. This process, known as drawing, stretches the metal, making it longer and thinner. The gauge number was originally defined as the number of times a wire was drawn to reach a certain size. So, a wire that has been drawn more times (and is therefore thinner) has a larger gauge number.