Real Computing Made Real

In the cladding of elongated articles with a stainless steel foil, the article together with the foil is fed to a wrapping die, which is shaped to progressively fold the foil around the elongated article. Hitherto, it has been the practice to form the die entirely from a ferrous material, which because of the relatively hard nature of the stainless steel foil, wears considerably with the result that swarf or contaminants may become embedded in the die surfaces. The surfaces of stainless steel foils subsequently folded by the die become scored and pitted. Particles which become embedded the damaged foil surfaces can initiate the formation of rust, resulting in rapid detioration of the appearance of the cladded article.