Wednesday, September 22, 2010
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Makino is introducing a new WEDM designed for tungsten carbide and PCD applications. These include high speed, precision stamping tooling and inserts, and PCD cutting tools and inserts. The UPV3 and UPV5 machines use oil for dielectric instead of water. This carries more than one advantage. Besides developing smaller spark gaps for achieving near mirror finishes, the oil dielectric also prevents corrosion of steel parts and electrolytic cobalt depletion of carbides during long periods of submersion. This new technology cuts about 2-1/2 times faster during roughing than prior oil based machines. The first of these new machines was introduced at Allegheny Machine Tool in East McKeesport, PA. The pictures below were taken of parts cut on the machine there. The part is carbide, 1 inch thick. 0.008” diameter brass wire was used to machine a series of teeth along the face of the carbide block. The photos comparing the parts cut with water to the parts cut with oil clearly show damage to the cutting edges when using water, and virtually no damage when using oil.
For more detailed information of the problems associated with WEDMing carbides and PCDs, and how the UPV machines respond to these problems, see my webinar titled "Faster Cutting of Carbide and Hardened Materials."