How long to cut this

[bob]

Not asking for a quote just an opinion. I made the part on my very old and slow machine just wondering how long it would take on a more up to date one. It is 1 1/4 thick mild steel and I estimate about 12 inches of cut.
Bob

 

[michiganbuck]

I'm not a laser guy but I found this:

On thick materials (see Figure 1), a 5,000-W laser can deliver cutting rates significantly higher than machining's: Mild steel—1/2 in. at 70 inches per minute (IPM), 3/4 in. at 42 IPM, 1 in. at 30 IPM, and 11/8 in. at 23 IPM feed rate Stainless steel—3/8 in. at 50 IPM, 1/2 in. at 36 IPM

From here it looks like your part is about 35" (?) inches around.
But the program, writing a shipper, setting up, having a coffee break and talking to a customer all take time.

 

[bob]

Wire edm

 

[plastikdreams]

On our fx machine with 10 wire id guess 5 to 6 hours.

 

[KilrB]

If that's 1.25" thick, I'm looking at waay more than 12" loc ...

 

[Madco]

Not asking for a quote just an opinion. I made the part on my very old and slow machine just wondering how long it would take on a more up to date one. It is 1 1/4 thick mild steel and I estimate about 12 inches of cut.
Bob

I have checked the speeds in the Steel Techno for my AgieCharmilles P350 machine.
Because you don't post the required roughness i will give some more options fyi.

Used 0.01"/0.25mm standard brass wire for calculation.
Because i am using metrics, i tounded your height and Contour to:
1 1/4" -->32mm height & 12" --> 305mm Contour

Cuts	Roughness	Time	Speed MM/Min	Speed "/Min
1 Cut	Ra 3.0	57 Min.	5.35 mm/min	0.2106 "/Min
2 Cuts	Ra 1.7	95 Min.	3.20 mm/min	0.1259 "/Min
3 Cuts	Ra 0.6	146 Min.	2.08 mm/min	0.0818 "/Min
4 Cuts	Ra 0.33	244 Min.	1.25 mm/min	0.0492 "/Min

Offcourse this is with optimal flushing conditions, and straight line speeds.
But most times the calculations are pretty accurate for my machine.
When i use special wire i could reduce the time by 5/8% depending on the conditions.

 

[bob]

Quite a wide spread! Madco says around 1 hour Cat says 5-6 my machine slower than Cats

 

[plastikdreams]

I have checked the speeds in the Steel Techno for my AgieCharmilles P350 machine.
Because you don't post the required roughness i will give some more options fyi.

Used 0.01"/0.25mm standard brass wire for calculation.
Because i am using metrics, i tounded your height and Contour to:
1 1/4" -->32mm height & 12" --> 305mm Contour

Cuts	Roughness	Time	Speed MM/Min	Speed "/Min
1 Cut	Ra 3.0	57 Min.	5.35 mm/min	0.2106 "/Min
2 Cuts	Ra 1.7	95 Min.	3.20 mm/min	0.1259 "/Min
3 Cuts	Ra 0.6	146 Min.	2.08 mm/min	0.0818 "/Min
4 Cuts	Ra 0.33	244 Min.	1.25 mm/min	0.0492 "/Min

Offcourse this is with optimal flushing conditions, and straight line speeds.
But most times the calculations are pretty accurate for my machine.
When i use special wire i could reduce the time by 5/8% depending on the conditions.

I'm not going to say these numbers are not possible because I know edm technology has been improving. But over .200 ipm in 1.25 thick steel sounds very optimistic. Again though it just may be possible. That's speeds I was getting in aluminum around 1.00 thick with 10 wire, same cut with 12 wire was .5 ipm...I almost shit myself when I saw that lol. This was on mits mv machines using a custom epack back in 2017, the machines were maybe a few years old.

 

[Brian Pfluger]

Bob,

If SPEED is your ultimate goal, you can switch to 0.012" (0.300mm) brass wire or make the jump to a High Speed Coated. On the Makino machines you get a double Win-Win with the 0.012" wire technologies, as you get a boost in your Rough-Cut speed with a significant reduction in wire consumption. Makino-to-Makino, switching from 0.010" to 0.012" Brass wire, you will see a 20% reduction in your Rough-Cut Cycle Time AND a 30% reduction in wire consumption (COST)! If we want to throw the kitchen sink at this, Makino also offers 0.016" (0.400mm) wire technology that achieves even faster speeds! Below are some cycle time estimates, and these are conservative out-of-the-book numbers...


Material: Steel
Material Thickness: 1.250"
Contour Cut Length: 12.0"
Flush Conditions: Good Seal-Off (flat work piece top and bottom)
Process: 1-Pass Machining


0.012" Brass Wire
- Machining Speed = 0.252"/min
- Cycle Time Est. = 48 minutes
- Wire Consumption = 0.462 lbs.


0.012" Coated Wire
- Machining Speed = 0.320"/min
- Cycle Time Est. = 38 minutes
- Wire Consumption = 0.366 lbs.


- Brian

 

[bob]

Hi Brian gd impressive just an academic question. What is the price of that machine?
Bon

 

[Madco]

FYI.
I am now running a job 40mm (1.57") height. First Cut is running 4mm/min (0.157"/min).
So the speeds for 30mm/1.25" will probably pretty accurate