Product category:
EDM wire cutting
News Release from: 600 Centre | Subject: Fanuc Alpha OiA wire EDM, Joemars EDM
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 28 March 2002
Latest EDM technology virtually ousts
benchwork
Wire EDM replacement and latest vertical EDM machine improve machining accuracy and virtually eliminate bench finishing for mould tooling.
By replacing an existing Fanuc W1 wire EDM machine with the latest Fanuc Alpha OiA from 600 Centre of Shepshed, Master Tools of Stockport has improved its productivity by 25 per cent And with the addition of a Joemars vertical EDM machines has enabled bench finishing to be virtually eliminated
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 22 May 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Managing Director Simon Dalby readily quotes a recent 108 hour marathon when the Fanuc Alpha machine produced 360 separate holes and cites a whole string of 'firsts' from the new machine.
These include the generation of a form to allow direct moulding in polycarbonate of the tooth form for a tear-off strip on a laser printer cartridge and the machining of gear moulds to achieve 40 micron accuracy in the finished moulding.
Having set up Master Tools in 1994, Simon Dalby has grown the company into one of the UK's most progressive and successful injection and blow mould manufacturers, which now employs 36 people.
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His recent round of investment which included the Fanuc Alpha, a Joemars 43A CNC and four manual Joemars vertical 60A and two 50A sinking EDMs was aimed to enable the company to improve its competitiveness in an industry sector that has seen many changes in technology and has been particularly vulnerable to the forces of globalisation.
He says: "We wanted to expand our die making capabilities and get into high speed milling for both mould cavity and electrode production and took the view that we also needed to upgrade our existing Fanuc wire EDM which had been bought second hand." He considered, in this situation, he was tempted to go for a very high technology solution across the board.
"However, we needed machine capacity and decided to slant the expenditure in favour of a high speed mill and the Fanuc Alpha and include the five vertical EDMs," he says.
He continued: "The mix of machines suits the way that we work as a lot of our tools involve inserts, either to provide flexibility or to ease maintenance.
The need for a high quality wire machine was essential.
Similarly, we needed a highly productive means of making electrodes which are mostly machined from graphite so the high speed mill provides us with a high speed and hard metal machining capability.
The vertical EDM machines are used to create multiple impression dies so we decided to include two of the Joemars with electrode changers which are also ideal for detailing." He also maintains: "We have found that, by producing a high quality electrode and using top quality graphite we can also obtain high levels of productivity and finish using the manual Joemars EDM machines and these are accessible for use to all our toolmakers." Master Tools is able to supply tooling up to 2.5 tonnes to a customer base drawn from the automotive, telecommunications, white goods and medical sectors.
For some time it has offered a complete tool development service, taking CAD geometry from its customers and developing a workable, mouldable component in close co-operation with the end user.
As well as production tooling, the company offers prototyping and pre-production tooling services using soft aluminium cavity tools, and a tooling repair and modification service.
Growth has been generated through a mix of competitive pricing and short lead times with the ability to add value to the range of services through tool design and development.
It has also seen business expand through the making of soft tools for prototype and short production type applications.
Production tooling is initially rough machined, heat treated and either EDM sink or hard metal machined to gain the required finish.
Tooling is mainly produced from high quality H13 grade steel though the company has also begun to take advantage of material development through relatively free machining semi-hard steels.
For wire EDM component machining the Fanuc Alpha with its four-axis control has proven to be particularly efficient when using plain brass wire.
It is able to maintain accuracy well within Master Tools requirements of ? 6 microns over the entire work envelope.
Master Tools uses the wire machine for a very wide range of duties.
As well as cutting the profile of inserts, it is used to machine ejector pin holes and to profile both copper and graphite electrodes.
Alan Moonie, Master Tools' CAD/CAM manager, comments: "It's a very versatile machine which allows us to cut all sorts of shapes.
We program it using the off-line Fanuc FAPT-CUT system which provides us with more powerful drawing facilities than the onboard machine control.
It also allows us to import DXF files and, through the machines fourth axis, we have the ability to cut whatever draft angle we need, and this is totally regardless of the component shape." The machine is run for some 150 hours a week and during rare periods when there is no-one working in the factory, a modem link ensures that the machine can alert Simon Dalby if it needs attention.
He maintains: "It's one of our key facilities, we've worked hard to develop our wire cutting capability and we now have a high level of competence.
The fact that we can modify the generator settings means that we even use it to cut premium grade graphite.
This has allowed us to move away from exclusive use of copper to the more easily machined material for an increasing proportion of electrode production." Simon Dalby recalls: "We bought one Joemars CNC machine, a EDM 43A, rated at 75A as well as a manual Joemars 60A machine and two Joemars 50A manual machines at the same time as the Fanuc Alpha." He has found the vertical Joemars CNC machine is very versatile and provides considerable scope because you can dial in the finish required.
Combined with availability of highly precise electrodes, this means that very little bench polishing is now needed to achieve the finish.
"The Joemars has also proven to be very accurate and capable of picking up datum points extremely well, while the tank size and capability to support a 75 kg electrode on the ram means that we can put our largest jobs onto it," he says.
He also explains how useful the tool changer is.
"We use it for around 50 per cent of the jobs we now do." The three Joemars manual vertical sinking machines have proved similarly useful because Master Tools has a widespread requirement for 'jobbing' spark erosion as part of its tool making and tool repair operations.
"Although we have four people more-or-less dedicated to EDM, most of our toolmakers need access to the machines on a regular basis," he says.
"The beauty of the manual EDM machines is that everyone can easily get to grips with them and, as the new machines have a fuzzy logic generator control, this helps.
But we have also been able to develop our own customised settings for the machines and, in the right hands, they're proved to be highly productive." And as Simon Dalby concludes: "All the 600 Centre machines have represented extremely good value for money.
The favourite has to be the Fanuc Alpha because it gives us the capability to make things that we previously would have had to contract out or walk away from.
That said, we've been very pleased with the sink machines on the basis that they do very effectively what we bought them for.".
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