Complex, fast and fully automated: The art of wire erosion

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EDM's main disadvantage is its comparatively slow speed

The versatility of wire EDM also extends to its ability to cut thick and hard materials – even polycrystalline diamond.

Andrew says: “It has always been difficult to grind, mill or lathe hard, thick materials using traditional processes because the force of the cut causes wear and damage to the machine tooling. Wire EDM doesn’t require any force or impact, which really opens up the kinds of materials we can shape with this machine.”

“For example, you could shape a piece of hardened D2, 60 Rockwell, Inconel, Tungsten carbide or titanium. A wire EDM can even cut polycrystalline diamond, a man-made material on a carbide backing. The only proviso is that the material must be conductive, so plastics and other non-conductive materials are not suitable for EDM manufacture.”

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“Modern machines are also capable of cutting materials up to and over 500mm thick, and because the material is cut instead of chipped, you can use the waste material – or ‘slugs’ – to manufacture even smaller components – another cost saving!”

However, there is a downside to the EDM’s manufacturing capabilities, as Andrew explains: “Wire EDM is a highly regarded process across the manufacturing industry, but its main disadvantage is speed. It’s not a fast process – if you’re cutting
a material that is 500mm thick, the machine
will only be able to work at about 0.1mm a
minute.”

“Having said that, it only takes one pass with the machine to create the object you want, as opposed to traditional machining methods where it might take three or four. Furthermore, if you want to create the same shape several times, you can put three, four or even ten pieces of material on top of one another and make identical copies of the component at the same time. In effect, what you lose in the initial speed of the process, you gain in efficiency overall.”

With the rise of Industry 4.0, the most important consideration for manufacturers is the role that automation can play in streamlining their processes. Wire EDM machines are powered by pre-determined automated commands, which, as Andrew explains, can offer a significant cost saving to industry.

“Traditional machine methods such as milling or grinding would usually require an operator to be present, who would check the wear on the grinders and make sure the tools are functioning correctly. It might only be £5 an hour to run the machine, but if you’ve got an operator standing there at an extra £15 an hour, you’re then looking at four times the cost of an automated solution. That’s also time the operator could have spent working on other processes, so you’re losing output as well.”

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