Thread: Selection of new wire EDM Machine

Hello,

I ran my own small tool shop (6 people) and I am considering to buy new wire EDM machine. At the moment I am using Fanuc Alpha 1C machine.

I am quite happy with the machine except for following:
-no change of re-threading of the wire if wire brakes (once on 40 tries)
-not so happy with belly effect (0,03mm on 220mm tall workpiece)
-cutting speed seems to be slow, especially on taller workpieces (100mm and above)
-not optimum accuracy with tapper cutting

Manly we are doing high precision parts +-0,005mm with thickness from 60 till 250mm.

For new machine I am considering new Fanuc Alpha 1iD and Agie (thinking of Progress 3) since we already have Agie die-sinking machine.

Any recommendation's from real user who have similar work would be highly appreciate.

I run a tooling job shop and have 2 Sodicks, with 1 less than 2 years old.

Reasons I bought Sodicks

10 year garente on possitional accuracy
The machine is like a stand alone drawing and programming center, Comes with solidworks and esprit built into the control
The support and service is unsurpassed buy anyone.

Very happy with Sodick Kevin

KevinB,

Thank you for the repay.
How is with wire threading with Sodick?
Is it possible to re-thread the wire where it brakes?
What is the speed of cutting and accuracy?
Which models do you run?

Thank you in advance.

mazo, I have held .0002" (.005mm) per side straightness in 250mm thickness on Makino WEDM. You may have seen the ads about "belly wizard" (internally referred to as GS-cut at Makino) in some of the trade magazines; this is the technology which enables the Makino (and so far as I've seen, only the Makino) to perform this sort of work. You should definitely check out Makino.