Originally Posted by
guy153
Thanks for the correction. I'm not sure if Reynolds do anneal between butting passes but I thought the whole thing was cold right from when it was a billet. But I have looked it up and there is some annealing between passes when making cold drawn seamless.
I think Reynolds probably buy cold drawn seamless blanks and then butt them in their facility in Birmingham. Since they are only changing the diameter by a few tenths of a mm I don't think they do any more annealing of their own. But I'll see if I can find out more definitively.
My mistake, I meant the overall manufacturing process. Reynolds placed great emphasis on the seamless part of the production, not just the butting part. Generally speaking, I don't believe main frame tubes are usually annealed, indeed, they've been advertised as cold drawn and work hardened before. If annealing was attempted with the mandrel still inside, it would ruin the heat treatment of the mandrel. Of course heat treated grades are heat treated. I think fork blades may be annealed for easier raking. I believe Reynolds can still cold draw tubes to diameter and gauge, not just butt them.
Regarding 853 however, Reynolds notes that 853 work hardens particularly easily and broke their drawing machines multiple times, thus requiring "repeated annealing (softening) after each stage" of drawing. This would be in line with Reynolds recommendations of not manipulating 853 much beyond cold setting, and makes it likely 631 tubes are annealed some point soon before leaving the factory.