Wire EDM costs?

MattiJ · Aug 24, 2017

I was wondering what is typical production pricing for wire EDM cuts? Per square inch or square mm?

Came accross some ch**nese insert holders where the slotting is evidently done with wire EDM cutting.

When the total price for the insert holder is about 4 usd the EDM wire cut has to be dirt cheap. I would have imagined that simple slotting like in these would be done with slotting saw but apparently wire EDM is cost-effective alternative :eek:

( seen one with slug still in place...)
I'd say that there is ½ to 1 square inch to cut these:

Waakzaamheid · Aug 24, 2017

When we quote, we generally take in to account square inches, difficulty and quantity. Something like that, while hard to tell the scale, we'd probably charge around 15 each?

register · Aug 25, 2017

I've spent half of the last 5 years in China and I've seen exactly how these are done. People all over China use low-grade molybdenum wire EDMs for stock prep, slitting parts like this toolholder, or even finishing parts with loose tolerances. These machines are cheap to operate, inexpensive ($30-50k new), and cut fast.

Check out the Youtube video below. Until I went to China I'd never seen this type of machine. Now I'm considering buying one myself.

Molybdenum wire cut operation video - YouTube

aarongough · Aug 25, 2017

I wish this kind of machine was more commonly available in North America, I can certainly think of a lot of uses for one!

007Rob · Aug 25, 2017

register said:
I've spent half of the last 5 years in China and I've seen exactly how these are done. People all over China use low-grade molybdenum wire EDMs for stock prep, slitting parts like this toolholder, or even finishing parts with loose tolerances. These machines are cheap to operate, inexpensive ($30-50k new), and cut fast.

Check out the Youtube video below. Until I went to China I'd never seen this type of machine. Now I'm considering buying one myself.

Molybdenum wire cut operation video - YouTube

That's really interesting, I've seen the odd post on here mentioning these type of machines before but I never really gave them much thought.

Now I'm kinda interested myself.

Do you know kind of tolerances they can hold in hardened steel? Do you think it would be like a +-.001" kind of machine or more like +-.005" kind of stuff?

MattiJ · Aug 25, 2017

wdevine said:
Something like that, while hard to tell the scale, we'd probably charge around 15 each?

Shank is 12x12mm square if that gives some scale. Maybe 0.7 square inch of total cut.

Seem like "register" has a hunch of this sort of operation.
I'd figure that the slotting operation has to be way under 1 usd in china because its only small part of the whole 5 usd tool price.
Interesting as it looks like Chinese have pioneered the low cost wire-edm to a level that's competitive with simple slotting/slitting saw.

007Rob · Aug 25, 2017

Oh yeah, I guess I should answer the original question

I mainly have experience running wire machines, but when we had to outsource we were charged by the square inch. I seem to remember around $4-$5 per square inch for a single rough cut being considered "cheap"

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Wire EDM costs?

MattiJ

Titanium

Waakzaamheid

Cast Iron

register

Hot Rolled

aarongough

Stainless

007Rob

Aluminum

MattiJ

Titanium

007Rob

Aluminum

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