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Help buying new WEDM

ArturoMeltri

Plastic
Joined
Jan 15, 2018
Hello!

We are considering buying a new WEDM for next year, I'm in the process of quoting and choosing which WEDM is the best option.

We already have 2 Sodick VL600Q and they work perfect, we are looking to buy a smaller machine, 400 x 300 x 220 mm would be okay for us, but anyways I need to have three options to show the differences to my manager.

I received a quote from Mitsubishi and Makino, Mitsubishi offers me the MV1200-S and Makino offers me the U3 H.E.A.T

We manufacture dies and we always get 0.0005" precision with 2 passes in our Sodicks and thats okay for us.

The three machines are in the same range of prices $125-$135k.

Can you help me with your opinions, should I stay with Sodick or do you think Mitsubishi and Makino are a best option and why?

Thank you!
 
You've already got Sodicks, they work fine, they're easy to service, etc. Why even think of changing brands? I wouldn't! I love my Sodick machine!
 
You've already got Sodicks, they work fine, they're easy to service, etc. Why even think of changing brands? I wouldn't! I love my Sodick machine!

I'm glad to hear that, I know that they work fine the only issue is that I have to demostrate to my manager that the Sodick VL400Q is better than Makino or Mitsubishi, that all.

Which series do you have and how old is your machine?

We haven't had (idk if this is grammarly correct) any problem, have you?

Thanks

Arturo
 
Remind your management of the advantages of commonality of parts, training, etc.

(Note that I don't run EDM and have zero interest in what you buy - just pointing out that such commonality of parts, training, etc. is often helpful.)
 
We replaced an aging Charmilles with a Sodick in 08. Since then we bought 2 more. Our newest an ALN600. They're great machines. Fast, accurate, easy to use and great service.
 
I'm glad to hear that, I know that they work fine the only issue is that I have to demostrate to my manager that the Sodick VL400Q is better than Makino or Mitsubishi, that all.

Which series do you have and how old is your machine?

We haven't had (idk if this is grammarly correct) any problem, have you?

Thanks

Arturo
My Sodick is an AP500, year is about 2000. It's a great machine. Pretty much all my problems with it were a result of something I did wrong. It just runs and runs.
 
We bought Sodick ALC600G (European market) machine two years ago.
My opinion of Sodick machine is that person who has made that has no experience of wire cutting.
Example, if you use plane aligment with probe and after that move upper nozzle to workpiece (closed), machine dont compensate movement of z-axis by moving U and V-axis.
Also we have lot of problems with software and wire threading.
How reliable threading should be?
 
Hello!

We are considering buying a new WEDM for next year, I'm in the process of quoting and choosing which WEDM is the best option.

We already have 2 Sodick VL600Q and they work perfect, we are looking to buy a smaller machine, 400 x 300 x 220 mm would be okay for us, but anyways I need to have three options to show the differences to my manager.

I received a quote from Mitsubishi and Makino, Mitsubishi offers me the MV1200-S and Makino offers me the U3 H.E.A.T

We manufacture dies and we always get 0.0005" precision with 2 passes in our Sodicks and thats okay for us.

The three machines are in the same range of prices $125-$135k.

Can you help me with your opinions, should I stay with Sodick or do you think Mitsubishi and Makino are a best option and why?

Thank you!

I would stay with Sodick. You have 2 and they work great, the new Sodick can slide right it and start running with little to no training. Your consumables will be the same, maintenance, and service. Ive ran a AQ537L since 08 and its been a great machine.
 
We bought Sodick ALC600G (European market) machine two years ago.
My opinion of Sodick machine is that person who has made that has no experience of wire cutting.
Example, if you use plane aligment with probe and after that move upper nozzle to workpiece (closed), machine dont compensate movement of z-axis by moving U and V-axis.
Also we have lot of problems with software and wire threading.
How reliable threading should be?

When we bought our first machine, we had almost no experience in WEDM, and in the first 6 months we were really angry because we had
the threading problems I think you are having. We didn't trust our machines to stay all night working alone.

Until one day one of the technicians from Sodick came to our shop just to verify if we had problems with our machine.

We talk with him about the threading problems and he sent someone to clean our machine.

Our guides were BLACK because we didn't knew about the maintenance we had to give our machine to prevent the threading problems.

After that recommendation we clean our guides every 2 months depending of the load work we have, now we leave or machines working at night
and they thread with no problems. I believe we have a 30:1 rate of threading, 1 problem every 30 threads, which for us is fantastic.

I think your machine should have around 90 or 95% of probability of threading, it should work better than our machines VL SERIES.
 
I have worked four years with old Fanuc robocut (build 1998) and there was now problems with threading, newer. In Fanuc we dont do any service and clening at all to the machine but it works without any problems. And threading works without any problems with thin wires also (0,1mm wire). Offcourse we change filters, guides etc.
We have problems all the time and there has been Japanese technician many times solving threading and other problems. We had problems more than one year with wire tips which goes inside to the upper guide. After one year and many service they found that wire tip is too long in machine original parameter.
My opinion of threading reliability is, it have to be more that 99% when threading is make lower than 100mm in water.

What Fanuc, Charmilles and Makino users think about wire threading reliability?
 








 
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