Wolside®: all the benefits of the tungsten carbide-based coating
The strategic importance of anti-wear coatings in the wire drawing industry
In the highly specialized field of metallic wire drawing, the quality and durability of mechanical components make the difference between an efficient production process and one that is costly and subject to frequent downtime. In this context, anti-wear coatings play a central role in ensuring high performance, operational continuity, and long-term cost reduction. Among the most effective solutions available on the market, Paganoni’s Wolside® coating stands out for its unique combination of mechanical strength, reduced friction, and long-lasting durability. Made with a special formulation based on tungsten carbides and rare minerals, Wolside® is the ideal choice for harsh environments where friction and wear can quickly compromise final product quality.
The coating is applied using Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) technology, which creates a compact, porosity-free structure that is highly resistant to impact and the dynamic stress typical of high-speed wire drawing. This makes Wolside® particularly suitable for protecting drawing cones, capstans, wire guide rollers, dancer arms, and return pulleys — components subject to continuous mechanical stress and localized wear. In addition, thanks to a controlled surface roughness (optimal Ra values), Wolside® significantly reduces the coefficient of friction, improving wire flow and preserving the wire’s surface integrity.
Investing in components coated with Wolside® means achieving longer production cycles without interruptions, fewer extraordinary maintenance interventions, and superior quality of the finished product — even when processing demanding materials like high-strength steels or non-ferrous alloys.
Need to extend the service life of your components and improve your production quality? Contact us for personalized technical advice on the most suitable Wolside® coating for your line.
Why choose Wolside®: proven technical advantages in the field
Unlike many generic anti-wear coatings, Wolside® is specifically designed to meet the demands of the wire drawing industry, where components must withstand not only continuous abrasion but also mechanical shocks and repeated deformations caused by the high-speed movement of metallic wires. The key factor behind Wolside®’s outstanding performance lies in the use of carefully selected tungsten carbides, combined with a high-pressure, high-temperature application process that enhances mechanical properties and eliminates internal flaws.
One of the clearest advantages of adopting Wolside® is the drastic reduction in component wear. In applications where rapid surface degradation is common — such as drawing rings and cones — Wolside®-treated components maintain their original geometry much longer. This translates to fewer replacements, reduced downtime, and greater production continuity — all critical factors for a plant’s competitiveness.
Another important benefit is the improved wire flow. The Wolside®-coated surface, with its consistently low roughness, offers minimal friction, helping the wire maintain its ideal path. This means a lower risk of scratches, ovalization, or surface defects on the final product — crucial for precision-focused sectors such as automotive, medical, and electrical conductors. Additionally, process efficiency improves, as higher drawing speeds can be achieved without compromising wire quality.
Field tests and feedback from both Italian and international wire drawing companies confirm that using Wolside® results in an average 30% increase in component lifespan compared to other treatments, with a corresponding reduction in operating costs.
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Ideal applications for Wolside®: where it truly makes a difference
Wolside® can be used on a wide range of components within both dry and wet wire drawing lines. Its features make it ideal for protecting mechanical parts exposed to continuous sliding, cyclic impacts, and high friction, such as drawing capstans, drawing cone rings, dancer arms, return pulleys, wire guide rollers, and length counters. But it’s in demanding working conditions where Wolside® reveals its full potential.
In wire drawing plants processing high-strength steel wires, the combination of high speeds, friction, and mechanical load makes coating selection a strategic decision. The tungsten carbide-based Wolside® coating ensures not only greater wear resistance but also dimensional stability, reducing the risk of deformation or damage due to mechanical stress peaks. This is key to maintaining consistent wire quality — even in large-scale production.
For return pulleys and dancer arms, Wolside® ensures smooth operation and reduced mechanical energy dispersion, contributing to a quieter and more efficient system. Moreover, the treated surface prevents residue buildup and the accumulation of metal particles, simplifying maintenance and extending operating cycles.
In drawing cones or wire guide rollers, Wolside® outperforms standard treatments. Its hard surface enables constant — yet gentle — contact with the wire, minimizing wear on both the wire and the component. The result is a more stable process, less prone to unexpected variations, and above all, one that guarantees consistent product quality.
Wolside®’s versatility also includes use in component recovery processes. This allows for the regeneration of worn parts, avoiding full replacement and significantly lowering costs.
Controlled surface roughness and reduced friction: the hidden advantages of Wolside®
One of the most innovative aspects of the Wolside® coating lies in the surface roughness levels that can be achieved thanks to the high-pressure hot fusion process. This manufacturing method makes it possible to obtain surfaces with extremely low Ra values, which are essential for high-performance wire drawing. A surface that is too rough generates unwanted friction, which can slow down the process, prematurely wear the wire, and create surface imperfections. By contrast, a surface treated with Wolside® promotes smooth and consistent wire flow, reducing the energy required for drawing and minimizing wear.
The low coefficient of friction achieved with Wolside® has a direct impact on two key production parameters: production speed and wire quality. Reduced friction makes it possible to increase production cycles while preserving quality standards. This is particularly important when processing wires that are sensitive to deformation or dimensional variations, such as those used in the electronics or medical industries.
Another significant advantage is the long-term stability of surface roughness. While other treatments may degrade quickly—progressively increasing friction and the risk of micro-defects on the wire—Wolside® maintains its surface characteristics unchanged over long operating periods. This stability translates into greater system reliability and more effective maintenance planning.
In addition, the smooth and uniform surface of Wolside® reduces the adhesion of metal particles, dust, and oxides, making components easier to clean and more resistant to contamination. This benefit is critical in production environments where wire surface quality is a key performance parameter.
In summary, choosing Wolside® means not only protecting your components from wear, but also optimizing the entire production process, thanks to a smarter and more efficient approach to friction management.
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Long service life and impact resistance: how Wolside® extends component lifespan
One of the most appreciated features of Wolside® among wire drawing professionals is its exceptional durability. Thanks to the combination of tungsten carbides and the HIP hot fusion process, this coating provides a significantly longer operational life compared to standard treatments. In particular, Wolside® is able to withstand extremely intensive work cycles without losing its mechanical properties or showing signs of surface degradation.
Components coated with Wolside®—such as capstans, cones, wire guide rollers, and dancer arms—retain their original geometry for much longer periods, reducing the need for frequent replacements and leading to a substantial reduction in maintenance costs. This increased durability also results in fewer production interruptions, with a direct positive impact on productivity and plant reliability.
However, durability is not the only strength. Wolside® also offers exceptional impact resistance, a crucial characteristic in environments where components are exposed to irregular dynamic loads. In high-speed operations, for example, the wire often generates vibrations or mechanical shocks on guiding and traction components. A fragile or insufficiently resistant coating may chip or crack, compromising the entire production cycle. With Wolside®, these risks are greatly reduced thanks to the compact and homogeneous structure of the coating, which absorbs and evenly distributes impacts.
Abrasion resistance is also significantly higher than that of many other coatings available on the market. This means that even in the presence of abrasive wires or metallic impurities, the coated surface maintains its integrity for longer periods, ensuring a smoother, more stable, and more precise wire drawing process.
Finally, the extended service life of Wolside® also results in a lower environmental impact: fewer replacements mean less waste, fewer materials to dispose of, and fewer new components to manufacture. This advantage aligns perfectly with the principles of industrial sustainability increasingly demanded by the global market.
Want to drastically reduce maintenance costs and extend the life of your components? Discover how Wolside® can make a difference. Request a personalized consultation with Paganoni’s technical team.
Recovery and regeneration: Wolside® also for worn components
One of the greatest strengths of Wolside® is its application versatility, which extends beyond new components to include those that are already worn. Thanks to its extensive know-how and highly specialized in-house facilities, Paganoni offers a recovery and regeneration service for used components through the application of Wolside®. This allows companies to significantly reduce costs without compromising performance or quality.
The process begins with a detailed analysis of the component to be recovered, assessing wear, deformation, surface defects, and dimensional stability. The next step involves restoring the original geometries, followed by the application of the Wolside® coating using HIP technology, the same process employed for new components. The final result is a regenerated part that often delivers performance equal to—or even superior to—that of a new component, at a considerably lower cost.
This approach is particularly advantageous for complex or high-value components, such as capstans, cones, or pulleys, where replacement would require a significant financial and logistical investment. By recovering components with Wolside®, companies not only avoid costly downtime but also achieve more efficient spare parts management.
From an environmental perspective, regeneration with Wolside® represents a sustainable choice, fully aligned with circular economy principles: waste production is reduced, existing resources are optimized, and emissions related to manufacturing new components are minimized.
Finally, the recovery service goes beyond coating application alone and includes internal cleaning of the component, anti-corrosion treatments, dimensional and roughness inspections, and the issuance of inspection certificates that guarantee compliance with Paganoni’s quality standards.
Comparison with other coatings: what makes Wolside® the superior choice
The market for technical anti-wear coatings offers a wide range of alternatives, each with different properties in terms of chemical composition, application method, and performance. However, when it comes to applications involving high mechanical stress, such as metal wire drawing, Wolside® stands out for a combination of superior performance—resulting from an optimized formula and more than forty years of field research.
Compared to standard cemented carbide coatings or hard chrome surface layers, Wolside® offers a more compact and homogeneous internal structure, free of microcracks or porosity. This ensures greater mechanical strength and longer service life. Additionally, its calibrated surface roughness—customizable according to the application—ensures the ideal balance between smooth wire flow and the preservation of component geometry.
Unlike superficial treatments such as nitriding, chrome plating, or galvanic coatings, Wolside® is a structural coating, capable of withstanding impacts, dynamic loads, and harsh working conditions without losing adhesion or effectiveness. This makes it particularly suitable for components like capstans, rings, rollers, and pulleys, which undergo continuous stress cycles.
Another key strength is customization: thanks to in-house production and Paganoni’s design flexibility, Wolside® can be tailored to customer-specific needs, with adjustable variables such as coating thickness, carbide type, grain size, and surface finish. This allows for precise and targeted adaptation based on the type of metal processed, line speed, and operating environment.
Finally, even when compared to other high-performance coatings available worldwide, Wolside® ensures an extremely favorable cost/longevity ratio. The initial investment is quickly offset by less downtime, increased productivity, and reduced maintenance costs.
Proven performance: data, testing, and customer feedback
To support the quality of its Wolside® coating, Paganoni relies on objective data and real-world results, collected over years of use in leading wire drawing companies both in Italy and abroad. Tests conducted on coated components consistently show superior results compared to alternative treatments, with up to 40% longer service life, 30% friction reduction, and 25% less downtime during extended production cycles.
Wire drawing companies processing reinforced steel wire, for example, have observed a significant increase in the service life of capstans and better profile retention in drawing cones, even under extreme operating conditions. In many cases, businesses have been able to double maintenance intervals, achieving not only direct savings but also more stable production.
One of the most compelling case studies comes from a wire drawing facility in Northern Italy which, after implementing Wolside® on all capstans in its main line, reduced replacement interventions from once every 6 months to once every 18 months. Additionally, the company reported improved surface quality of the wire, with a 22% decrease in quality control rejects.
Feedback from production technicians has also been extremely positive: operators have highlighted easier wire handling, fewer scratches and deformations, and consistent component performance even after months of continuous use. This level of reliability is particularly appreciated in multi-shift lines or in environments where continuous production is a key competitive factor.
Beyond field testing, Paganoni conducts in-house tests on roughness, hardness, adhesion, and wear resistance of Wolside® coatings, providing certifications and personalized technical reports for every batch. This gives clients full control over the component lifecycle and greater peace of mind in managing industrial processes.
Customization and technical support: Paganoni’s added value
In addition to the exceptional quality of Wolside®, what truly sets Paganoni apart is its ability to customize every component based on the customer’s specific operational requirements. This is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but rather a tailor-made technical process involving materials, geometries, finishes, and thicknesses—developed in direct collaboration with the client’s technical team.
The Paganoni team works closely with production managers, maintenance staff, and design engineers to define the most suitable coating for every operating condition. Thanks to this consultative approach, it’s possible to optimize each component, from the geometry of grooves in wire guide rollers, to the ideal roughness for delicate wire contact, and the selection of the most suitable carbides based on the processed metal.
Each project begins with a detailed technical analysis, evaluating factors such as line speed, temperature, production cycle frequency, wire type (ferrous, non-ferrous, copper, special steel), and the working environment (dry, humid, acidic, corrosive). This prevents both overengineering and underperformance of the coating, ensuring maximum efficiency.
Moreover, Paganoni provides post-sales technical support, including geometric inspections, 3D measurements, and roughness testing of components in operation. If necessary, modifications or regenerations can be carried out very quickly, thanks to in-house manufacturing capabilities.
This customer-first approach is deeply embedded in Paganoni’s company culture: not just a supplier, but a technological partner supporting companies on a path of continuous improvement. A philosophy reflected in the long-standing trust shown by both domestic and international clients, who continue to choose Wolside® as their go-to solution for drawing lines.
Conclusion: Wolside® is the smart choice for the wire drawing industry
In the world of industrial wire drawing, every technical detail can become a competitive advantage. In this context, Wolside® stands out as one of the most advanced and reliable solutions for those who want to maximize productivity, reduce maintenance costs, and ensure consistent product quality over time. It’s not just a surface treatment—it’s an applied technology, combining material science, process engineering, and deep sector expertise.
Its key characteristics—high hardness, controlled roughness, outstanding wear and impact resistance—make it ideal for components exposed to heavy stress, such as capstans, cones, dancer arms, guide rollers, and return pulleys. Its effectiveness is backed not only by lab tests but by years of real-world use, with documented results that prove longer component lifespan, higher productivity, and reduced scrap rates.
Moreover, the ability to regenerate worn components by applying Wolside® as a secondary coating extends equipment lifespan and minimizes environmental impact, in line with today’s industrial sustainability standards. On top of this, Paganoni’s technical support ensures in-depth analysis, personalized coating strategies, and full assistance throughout the process—from design to maintenance.
Choosing Wolside® means investing in efficiency, quality, and reliability. It’s a decision that pays off over time by improving not only component performance but also the entire production system—creating the foundation for stable, sustainable industrial growth.
Need a practical solution to enhance your line’s performance? Contact Paganoni today for a technical consultation on Wolside® and get the best proposal for your production line.
