Page 1 of 6 in the High Speed Burning category Next Page
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
EDM
is a popular means of machining tungsten carbide materials, because the hardness
of the material is not a concern for the EDM process. Both Wire and
Sinker EDMs can used to machine fine details and near mirror finishes in tungsten
carbide materials. The major drawback to the use of WEDM to machine tungsten
carbide has always been the electrolytic action between the carbide material and
the dielectric (de-ionized) water used in WEDM machines. This electrolytic
action can actually break down the binder in the carbide, usually cobalt, and
produce what looks like rust on the surface of the material. Under
magnification, this break down is apparent as voids in the surface of the
material (see photo 1a & 1b). These voids weaken the structure of the
material, and will result in shortened tool life, especially for impact tooling
such as punches, and dies used in stamping, forging, or cold heading.
WEDM
using oil as the dielectric has been a slow process, historically, and there
have been few of these kinds of machines produced. Makino now offers a machine
designed to operate with oil dielectric, and to cut carbide and PCD materials
with extreme accuracy and surface finishes. The UPV3 and UPV5 WEDM machines are
the next evolution of the award winning U-Series WEDMs from Makino. Although
designed for machining carbides and PCD materials, the UPV machines also perform
well in tool steels. Leaving only sporadic measurable recast, and no measurable
HAZ, these machines can achieve measurable surface finish results of 0.08ymRz or
better! (see photo 2). For more information about these ultra-precise, oil
dielectric WEDMs, watch the new Makino webinar on "Faster Cutting of Carbide and Hardened Materials."
Photo 1a – Carbide machined in oil; no cobalt depletion.
Photo 1b – Carbide machined in de-ionized water shows signs of cobalt depletion.
Photo 2 – Reflections of parts in surface of carbide block taken directly from UPV.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
I was recently made aware of a new video clip on the internet comparing wire
consumption of 2 WEDMs. I have provided a link to this clip so you can check it
out. The video shows 2 WEDM machines during the cut. The camera focuses on the
wire spools as they unspool wire during the rough cut of the same part detail.
The difference in unspooling rates is pretty staggering. According to the
video, both machines performed about as well regarding cycle times, accuracy and
finish, but one of the machines uses 55% less wire than other. This can
represent a huge amount of money over time. For a shop that has a machine that
uses this much more wire, and spends say $10,000 a year for wire, the lower wire
consumption means that this shop could reduce their wire expense by about $5500
per year, at today's wire price of about $5/lb for brass wire. Commodity prices
are rising again, and that means the raw materials needed to make wire (copper
and zinc) are at a higher price as well. This will tend to drive the price of
wire even higher than today's price of about $5/lb. Who remembers the days of
brass wire costing $7-8/lb? Well, if the price of wire goes up, the cost
savings will be even more. The other way to look at it is if the price of wire
goes up, and you use a machine that consumes more wire, you have to either raise
the price of the parts you make for your customers, or you will realize lower
profits.
Some will say that most WEDMs can be run at far lower wire speeds,
which is true. However, if these machines are set to lower wire feed rates,
they will also see longer cycle times. As wire feed rates are reduced, cutting
speeds must also be reduced to avoid things like excessive wire breaks,
inaccuracies, and poor surface finishes.
Makino has been
working with their customers for several years, educating them on the added
value provided by Makino WEDMs, that do indeed use far less wire to do the same
job as other machines. In today's extremely competitive business environment,
who can afford not to consider a machine that has proven itself to save several
thousand dollars each year in wire cost? Especially if that machine can achieve
results equal to or better than competitors that consume 30%-55% more
wire.
I will be presenting a webinar on September 10 that will address this
issue in detail. In the meantime, you can contact me to receive a free wire
consumption calculator that will allow you to input wire feeds, cutting speeds,
and cost of wire per pound to see just how much wire is used, and how much you
spend in wire, for any given job.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
There's always a good feeling you get after reading an e-mail like this...
"It is a pleasure to write this e-mail. I wanted
to express my gratitude for the support I've always received from all of my
contacts with the people from SST Group. Mr. Dan Dotson keeps in frequent
contact with me on any consumable items that I may need. He always finds time to
call me at least weekly to provide updates on SST product updates or to offer
encouragement as we navigate this difficult business cycle environment. Many
thanks.
I would also like to tell you about the valuable support I receive
from another of your highly qualified people. Kevin Most has probably been the
biggest reason I have been successful with the investments I've made with Makino
EDM's. Many, many numerous times I have clicked on his speed-dial on my cell
phone over the last 2 to 3 yrs and have never not been able get in immediate
contact with Kevin. I'm not talking about problems with my machines but rather
application issues such as helping me by discussing the best way to burn select
materials so I can quote a job, or complete a job or just enlighten me as to the
capabilities of the SP43. I have one small customer that asks me to burn a shape
in carbide that is actually a spline curve which often trips me up on the
programming side and Kevin always finds a solution for me. Did you know that he
helped me through one of these projects by exchanging e-mails while he was in
Singapore last year? Yep, he found time between meetings, tours and training to
get the info to me. Unbelievable. Ask him sometime how he worked me through a 4axis
application for an exhaust nozzle on a jet engine that turned into a blanket
order that lasted over a year and may repeat again this year.
Lately, I've
been moving jobs from other wire edm's over to the Makinos to take advantage of
using my 'HEAT' settings on quite thin but very rigid work pieces. I don't think
'Heat' is generally recommended for 1/4" or 3/8" thick work pieces however when
the parts are in a rigid set-up and very poor flushing 'Heat' works very
well.
I will not extend this email further with any more examples of how I've
been supported. So let me conclude with this. Picture me in my shop, standing in
front of the control on a SP43, cell phone up against my ear, saying "Kevin, how
do I get it (the SP43) to do this" That says it all.
When I purchased my
second Makino, I told Nick that I made my decision based on buying not just a
good machine but also buying the Makino Team. I'm sure I'll feel the same when
I'm ready for my third."
Sincerely,
Jack Lanphier Pres.
Lanko
Industries, Inc.
Mentor, Ohio
Thanks for the e-mail Jack. It's a pleasure for all of us at Makino to serve our customers.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
FW: Ti Booster technology
Makino has recently developed Titanium booster technology
for Makino sinkers at the request of a major aerospace
manufacturer. In order to use it, the EDM machine must have a generator booster
that provides an additional 60 amps to the existing standard generator. What's
new is the technology, or machining conditions, that provide the burn parameters
for the machining - On time, Off time, Servo, Amperage, etc. The new technology
is currently for high speed roughing only, and provides material removal rates
of about 2 grams per minute. This is about 70-80% faster than previous
technologies. Makino is currently developing finish settings for this new
technology that are expected to be able to achieve finishes down to less than 2
micronRa, or 75 microinchRa. This technology will be available for most Makino
sinker EDMs. We'll be broadcasting an online seminar on our Titanium booster technology this Thursday, January 22, 2009. If you'd like to attend and learn more about these advancements in titanium machining, you can register for free here. Thanks for reading everybody, hope to see you at this weeks seminar!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Makino EDM introduced some new technology at IMTS. For Wire EDM, we
presented the new DUO43 and DUO64 WEDMs. These machines will replace
the SP series, and have several improvements of note. The DUO series
machines are about 20% smaller in footprint than the SPs were, but
retain the same X, Y, Z, U, V axis travels. The bed of the machines have
been redesigned to incorporate the clean and dirty tanks into the same
platform as the machine tool. New technologies will give the machine
about a 20% increase in performance in many applications, and we have
specifically designed .012" wire technologies to address both speed and
performance with larger diameter wires. This is the only WEDM made that
offers a choice of wire guide systems, either our proven Split
Precision V Guides or the new PICO Precision Guides for small
hole/close pitch threading and precision land/taper work for fine
blanking and precision stamping dies.
On the sinker side, our
newest advancements are a titanium specific generator, and Super Spark
Graphite. The titanium generator allows high speed burning of titanium
parts, specifically at the request of a major aerospace manufacturer,
while maintaining surface integrity of the parts being machined. Super
Spark Graphite is a new technology that drastically reduces burn time
in deep cavities, while reducing electrode wear. In some cases, Super
Spark Graphite allows EDMing of details that were impossible to do with
older, standard technologies. One example of this that was on display
at IMTS is a blind hole machined with a 5mm (0.197") square electrode
to a depth of 200mm (7.874"). The fact that this can even be done at all is
amazing, but it took only 20 hours (with no external flushing) and had
around 20% wear on the roughing electrode (1st of 3 electrodes total).
For
more information on these and other technological advancements in EDM
from Makino, go to www.makino.com, or
contact me at jeff.kiszonas@makino.com.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
This came into our applications department recently from a new EDGE2 customer:
"Thanks
for sending the test document on the Ultra-fine Circuit program. It was
a big help, along with the input on looking at the block by block
function in the diagnose screen. I now have a lot better understanding
of how time control breaks down into segments and how much time I'm
actually spending on each portion of each process. It was also
interesting on how MC Method 13 has 3 segments to each process and
Method 93 has 7 segments. It still amazes me on how the operator has
virtually an unlimited amount of options when it comes to programming.
The amount of information that's available to monitor every portion of
the burn is a big benefit that was unheard of with our old machine.
Every day I'm more and more convinced we made the right decision in
going with Makino. Thank You."
This customer does a lot of
carbide punch back-burning, and has seen a dramatic decrease in
processing time on the Makino EDGE2 as compared to the other sinker
they had been using. They also do a lot of carbide face details, and
have seen improvements in surface finish, surface integrity, and
geometric accuracy in these applications. We did a webinar on the back-burning process back in October 2007, entitled Back Burning Punches. This webinar, along with our
entire webinar archive, can be viewed for free at www.makino.com/library.
Friday, August 08, 2008
I've mentioned in the past that Makino is doing materials testing of aerospace alloys that have been
processed with EDM. Makino has shown 2 webinars addressing this topic. I will
be presenting more information on this topic as a speaker at this year's IMTS in
Chicago, IL on Wednesday, September 10 at 10:00 a.m. Makino EDM has had testing
done on several different aerospace alloys, having just added Inconel 718 to the
list of tested materials. Other alloys previously tested for HAZ, recast,
micro-cracking, and Vickers Micro-hardness include 6061-T6 aluminum, 17-4
stainless, and 6Al-4V titanium. Be sure to stop by the Business and Technology
Forum to see results of the latest testing performed by a NADCAP certified
lab.