Wednesday, April 20, 2011
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Q&A with Jeff Kiszonas: Swapping deioniz... »
When looking at new machines today, whether milling, turning, EDM, or any other piece of capital equipment, there are a number of factors that people will consider before making a final purchase decision. These range from the manufacturer and their product models, to operational costs, financing and more. In many cases, the decision may come down to a question of price. “Who can provide me the cheapest machine that meets my requirements?” Some shops will buy strictly on price, thinking that the lowest priced machine will save them the most money. In many cases, however, the lowest priced option may cost more in consumables, maintenance, and support fees.
Many of today’s machines are built with consideration of power consumption, and how the machine can conserve power when they are out of the cut. This is usually accomplished with software that allows the machine to shut down certain power consuming circuits when they are not required or in use. For example, the Makino EDAF series sinker EDMs can be programmed to shut down several circuits and functions, such as dielectric pumps, certain cooling fans, etc, after a job is completed. This can result in as much as a 69% reduction in power usage when the machine is in an idle state. By doing this when using unattended burning, the machine can finish a job at 3 a.m. and go into Power Save mode until someone comes into the shop the next day to restart the machine’s systems for normal operations. Without something like Power Save mode, the machine will continue to feed pump motors and cooling fans in the generator that are not really required after the burn is complete. Not only does this save energy that would otherwise be used for no reason, it lowers the overall cost of operation, and allows shop owners and machine operators to rest assured that they need not make a special trip into the shop in the wee hours of the morning to turn things off. With today’s push for more green technologies, these machines meet the challenge to decrease power usage, and thereby cost less to operate.
Another thing to consider with WEDMs is the rate at which they consume wire. Plain brass wires today cost about $6/pound. Most machines sold in North America spin off wire at a rate of about 1-1.5 pounds per hour, with factory settings. Makino customers have reported that their DUO machines save them up to 60% in wire cost, compared to other machines they have used. This is because Makino WEDMs consume wire at a rate of about 0.5-0.7 pounds per hour with factory settings. This can result in $10,000 - $15,000 per machine, per shift in wire cost savings compared to other WEDMs on the market today.
Even wire selection can have a big impact on operational costs. One Makino customer was hesitant to switch from brass to coated wire because of the 2.5 times price difference from brass to coated. This particular customer was cutting parts that had a cycle time of about 57 hours using brass wire. With simple math equations, the customer was educated to understand that by changing to coated wire, they would incur an additional $150 per part in wire cost, but they could shave the cycle time to about 45 hours per part (coated wires typically cut about 20% faster than brass wires). This was a “no brainer” to the customer, as the trade off of wire cost ($150) for cycle time (12 hours x shop rate) made them more competitive, more efficient, and allowed them to delay the purchase of another machine to add capacity.
Contact Makino today to see how we are meeting the requirements of ever increasing performance, while using less of our planet’s finite resources. You can also get more details here:
Wire Consumption Rates Impact EDM Profitability
Faster Burning, Lower Wire Consumption with 0.012-inch Wire
EDM Wire Consumption Calculator
As always, you can also contact me, Jeff Kiszonas, EDM Product Manager at Makino, for further discussion or comment.