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Recirculating Moly WEDM

jyd12f

Aluminum
Joined
Feb 3, 2014
Location
MN
Recirculating Moly WEDM - re-uses the Moly wire many times for low cost WEDM part cut off.

1 moly.jpg

1 moly 1.jpg
 
I would be very interested in a machine like that. I have some parts where the non-contact nature of wire EDM would be very useful, but I don't need anywhere near the level of precision that most wire machines are built for. +-0.0005 would be totally fine for what I would use it for.

Has anyone actually used one of these machines? Every time I research them I find only videos of them in use in china for some reason...

I will reach out to the contact listed above and see what they have to say, will post back.
 
Just had a chat with Jerry at EdmTechCenter, the machines sound really interesting. Apparently a roll of the moly wire is about $200, and is enough to load the machine about 5 times. Each load of wire in the machine will last for 120-200 hours of cut time.

The cutting fluid is deionized water, but there are no de-ionizing canisters as part of the machine. Just a filter stack. With the standard filter stack you'd be looking at cleaning out the machine and replacing the fluid every couple of hundred hours, but apparently they have an enhanced filter stack as a $4k option that extends the working life of the fluid to a couple of thousand hours, with just top-ups of DI water and a rust inhibitor.

Tolerances are apparently around +-0.0005" with the kerf width varying a little over the life of the wire as it wears, but they said the wear is very minimal and in most applications not an issue at all.

Apparently you can manually thread the wire through a bore but they talk about the machines being useful more in a situation where you can get at the part from the outside without threading...

I didn't get the exact travels for the machine but for the 400mm class of machine ballpark cost seems to be around $80k. Operating costs for the machine are quoted at ~$0.50 per hour which is obviously much less than a conventional wire EDM.

I have to say overall it sounds really interesting. I will be talking with them further and likely sending some parts for test cuts!

-Aaron
 








 
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