Manufacture of clad metals

Claim 1

A process for cladding a moving metal core rod with a dissimilar metal sheath, said process comprising the following steps: a. pre-bending a pair of continuous lengths of thin flat metal cladding strips into semi-circular shapes, said thin flat strips having a cross-sectional area width to thickness ratio of greater than 10 to one; b. removing contaminants from the concave surfaces of said cladding strips and from the entire periphery of a continuous length of round metal core rod; c. enclosing said core rod with said pre-bent cladding strips with the thin facing edges of said strips abutting while said core periphery and said strip concave surfaces are maintained contaminant-free, said thin flat strips forming a circular sheath around said core rod, said strips having a total cross-sectional area equalling less than approximately 40 percent of the total cross-sectional area of the sum of said strips and said core rod; d. maintaining said cladding strips and said core rod at approximately equal temperatures; and, e. solid-phase bonding said sheath to said core rod to produce a clad rod which is substantially free of strip edge fins protruding from the clad rod periphery that require removal, said strip edge fins having a total cross-sectional area equalling less than approximately 2.5 percent of the total cross-sectional area of the sum of said cladding strips and said core rod, said clad rod being immediately suitable for drawing into wire without subsequent heat treatment.