Zone: EDM Equipment

OVERVIEW: In EDM, or electrical discharge machining, the equivalent of tiny lightning bolts perform the material removal. Though slow in terms of metal removal rate, EDM is capable of machining complex shapes in hard materials. Mold and die makers, as well as makers of jet engine components, rely on EDM routinely. The process includes an electrode and a workpiece, both submerged in dielectric fluid. Current flows between the workpiece and electrode, repeatedly creating tiny plasma zones with temperatures around 10,000 degrees C. The high temperatures produce localized, instantaneous melting of the material. Though the process may seem violent, it occurs on such a tiny scale that the resulting metal removal can be precisely controlled. The electrode in EDM takes different forms. Wire EDM machines use a thin wire to cut with electricity, with the wire advancing into the hard metal part as if it was a slow-motion saw blade. By contrast, ram EDM machines, which are also called “die sinkers,” use electrodes that are custom machined into 3D shapes. The EDM process then produces a cavity in the part that is the opposite or female version of the “male” electrode form. Similar to the ram EDM machine is the small-hole EDM machine, or “hole popper.” On this machine, the electrode is a cylinder used to machine a hole. Often these machines are used simply to provide starter holes for wire EDM, but the technology may also be used to machine finished holes in materials that are too difficult to drill.

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Featured Zone Content

February 2008 -

Room To Grow

This wire EDM job shop in Wisconsin acquired a submerged cutting wire machine that lets it handle larger, taller workpieces than just about any other job shop in the country. The new machine has a “column-up” option that adds a riser block between the X-axis saddle and the Z-axis column casting to give it exceptionally tall cutting capacity. The machine was installed in November 2007....MORE

April 2013 - Modern Machine Shop

Sodick AG600LH wire EDM

Wire EDM Offers Additional Height

By: Modern Machine Shop

Sodick’s high-precision AG600LH wire EDM incorporates an additional Z height. ...MORE

April 2013 - Modern Machine Shop

Sixty Years of EDM

Mark Albert

GF AgieCharmilles has been involved in EDM technology for some 60 years now. Its recent International Technology Show in Losone, Switzerland was a good place to sense the history and current status of this technology. ...MORE

April 2013 - Modern Machine Shop

GF AgieCharmilles ITS

Mark Albert

 

February 2013 - Modern Machine Shop

Straight Talk about Cutting Steep Tapers with Wire EDM

Mark Albert

The RoboCut C400iA and two sizes of the larger C600iA wire EDM machines from Methods Machine Tools enable unusually steep tapers to be cut with the wire EDM process by positioning the workpiece with a rotary-tilt table. ...MORE

January 2013 - Modern Machine Shop

Mitsubishi EDM’s MV series

Don’t Discount the Small Stuff

Matt Danford

At least in the short term, the most significant machine design changes aren’t always the most significant difference-makers on the shop floor. ...MORE

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