Sodick AQ537L Premium Wire machine

Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with this machine and could give me some feedback. My shop found a used one for a decent price and would like to upgrade to a larger wire machine because we only have a Brother HS-70A currently and are outsourcing a lot of our bigger molds.

It doesn't have a ton of hours but my biggest concern is that it's already 11 years old and it's hard to know how well it's been maintained. We are going to look at it next week. Any pointers on what to check out and look for?

Any feedback on Sodick wire machines in general would be helpful too.

Thank you.

keurb said:

Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with this machine and could give me some feedback. My shop found a used one for a decent price and would like to upgrade to a larger wire machine because we only have a Brother HS-70A currently and are outsourcing a lot of our bigger molds.

It doesn't have a ton of hours but my biggest concern is that it's already 11 years old and it's hard to know how well it's been maintained. We are going to look at it next week. Any pointers on what to check out and look for?

Any feedback on Sodick wire machines in general would be helpful too.

Thank you.

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We have a 2007 vintage AQ327L, it's a pretty good machine. I've never had any problems with accuracy, it holds its own compared to our newer Sodick machines. Good news is that Sodick still has support, parts, and manuals for this generation of machine. If you go to look at it, here are a few things to look for:
- Check to see the condition of the ceramics on the upper and lower head, they should be free from cracks or large chips.
- The tank slide plate is another common area of failure, a sign of a well maintained machine will be if all of the flushing nozzles on the slide plate are clear and spraying. Expensive repair if these are clogged, or water is leaking from the back side of the slide plate.
- Look at the wire eject rollers in the rear of the machine, they are ceramic and about $3,000 to replace. If they are heavily grooved, they will need to be replaced.
- There is another ceramic roller under the lower wire guide, on the left side behind the grounding cable. It should spin freely by hand or if the AWT water is turned on. If it drags or is stuck, the bearings *may* be able to be replaced, but the recommended repair is to replace the (expensive) roller assembly.
- There are no ball screws on the main motion axis (X,Y,U,V), but there is on the Z axis. This has to be occasionally greased. Jog the Z axis up and down and listen for any irregular noise or signs of vibration.

Those are the main things that come to mind at the moment, the other common causes for trouble are fairly low-cost items and Sodick service has always been great with helping diagnose problems over the phone.

I will definitely be looking for all of these things. Glad to hear your machine is still running good. Thanks for all the info!