Wire EDM Services

Wire EDM or Wire Electrical Discharge Machining is the best choice of machining for projects that require:

• Features to be added after the material has been heat treated. This avoids dimensional changes caused by heat treat.
• Close tolerance work such as Press Fits or Slip Fits of simple to complex geometry shapes used in applications like mold making, stamping dies of all classes, match metal tools.
• Small interior corner radii are required in cavities.
• Adding Keyways to previously made pulleys or gears.
• Excellent taper geometry for extrusion tool plates – minimum blending required. [ Very efficient way to produce these ].
• Burr free cutting (no additional operations necessary).
• Small detailed cuts where features are delicate.
• In applications where an intermittent cutting condition presents itself – cutting through gaps in material, for example.
• Exotic and precious materials where the amount of material taken up by the cutting kerf is minimized by using the small wires.
• Difficult-to-machine metals such as nickel, 300 series stainless, aerospace alloys, tungsten and carbides. Hardness has no impact on the cutting process.

• For the cutting of nonconductive materials. Material must be conductive for WEDM to be effective.
• Wire EDM may be inefficient or uneconomical for cavities +/-.010” or more in many cases.
• Cutting spherical or helical geometry. Top and bottom geometries must be connected by a straight line.

Companies with Wire EDM capabilities choose to send Xact Wire EDM work for many reasons:

• For Xact’s capacity to help ‘catch up’ with backlogged wire EDM hours; also, new product launches, lack of machine operators, capital focused on other types of machining.
• For projects that require smaller wire diameters than you have experience with.
• For projects that require high-taper angle cuts.
• For projects that require taller cutting than what in-house wire machines can handle
• For exotic materials or special cutting conditions that are unfamiliar.

Competencies & efficiencies. Xact has the capacity and capability to work on a project in multiple machines at once, decreasing lead times and eliminating the possibility of being affected by a down machine

Programming knowledge. For certain projects – the order in which features are cut can be critical to meeting the specifications. The programmed path can also be important in relieving the internal stresses within blanks prior to completing the finished geometry. Knowledge of various applications: tools, dies, molds, gages, gears, splines, extrusion dies, heat sinks, photonics, numerous medical applications, etc.

Fixturing experience. Wire EDM is unique in that fixturing can be easily wire EDM’d to fit parts with complex geometry for precision location and difficult datum callouts.

Inspection capacity and capability. It is critical to have a mix of contact and non-contact inspection equipment and experience to measure and confirm tight tolerance work and extreme geometry applications. Many parts that Xact Wire EDM machines are actual gages themselves – results MUST be accurate and repeatable.

Documentation. Documentation is critical for production records history, and also for computing process capability to be applied in future projects.

Confidence in the data. With Wire EDM being such an accurate process – any deviations should be able to be divided into contributing factors. .0003” from wire squareness, .0002” from size computes to .0005” total location issue. All can be accounted for when taking precision measurements with the proper technique, gages and analyzing the results.

Yes – partnerships and close working relationships between Xact and our customers are highly beneficial. Sharing of fixturing ideas for efficiency, exchanging CMM programs for near instant inspection correlation are key in today’s markets. Advanced planning with customers for high volume runs helps Xact to schedule appropriately and hit difficult delivery demands.

In various types of steel less than .125” thick, Xact can wire EDM a minimum .016” diameter hole to +/-.0005 tolerance. In various types of steel greater than 1.0” thick, Xact can wire EDM a minimum .022” diameter hole to .0005” tolerance. Specs often need to be determined based on the material and thickness. Tighter tolerances can be achievable.

Xact Wire EDM’s smallest wire is .003” diameter. It can be used to create an interior corner radius of approximately .0017”. Wire EDM is also unique enough to generate a ‘dog-eared’ corner which is a small loop in the corner creating clearance that can then accept a dead sharp male corner on a mating piece without issue.

Wire EDM can sometimes be an expensive process depending on tolerance, finish, the number of cavities, and detail. But, Wire EDM can also be very cost effective if parts can be stacked in a shim pack; or even less than the full cost of making a stamping die. Parts can also be nested together to conserve material. Tooling and fixturing costs can be much less with wire EDM. Since wire EDM is such a precise and repeatable machining method, fallout is much reduced.

Wire EDM can now be considered a traditional machining process in the Tool & Die Industry for sure with MANY proven and successful applications in the stamping and molding world. However, many Aerospace, Defense, and Flight Safety components still classify ‘Wire EDM Machining’ as a non-traditional or non-conventional machining method. This was first established in the 1960’s – 1970’s by Aerospace Engineers as some failures occurred from wire EDM machining due to the re-cast layers left by early wire EDM spark generators during the cutting process. The advancements in both DC and AC spark generators in wire EDM have made tremendous strides in the reduction of the re-cast layer and HAZ ( Heat Affected Zone) on the EDM surface. Metallurgical tests are continuously occurring to sway all engineers to get Wire EDM classified as a standard or conventional method of machining.

There are several excellent wire EDM machine manufacturers throughout the world, including Sodick, Agie Charmilles, Mitsubishi, and Fanuc. Each one has several unique key features needed to EDM various high-quality components. The ‘best’ label may come with the application that you are using the machine for. Xact has numerous Sodick and Agie Charmilles machines of various sizes and capabilities. Service, parts, and applications assistance are also very important when comparing the manufacturers.

It is. Working with Xact Wire EDM has created benefits for our customers far outweighing the UPS package cost or LTL shipment expense. Our large number of wire EDM machines and 24/7 operations get your work done correctly and efficiently – usually ahead of a delivery schedule. Programming and inspections are also done very quickly.

The advantage of wire EDM when working with thin conductive raw material is that the sheets can be stacked several layers high and machined in a pack. The edge quality will be very perpendicular to the top and bottom faces, allowing tight specifications to be achieved. Other methods of producing parts may also be able to do many parts at once, by creating a nested array layout of many parts onto a single large thin sheet of raw material. The difference is that these alternative methods produce a much less perpendicular edge face and less precise parts.

High taper on wire EDM projects can usually fall into 3 different application areas:

1. Lifters and Lifter projects for the Plastic Injection molding industry
2. Extrusion components for the plastics, medical tubing, and food industries
3. Back taper relief for the HSS and Carbide cutting tool industry

Yes. Specially designed machines (Molybdenum Wire EDM, also referred to as “Fast Wire EDM”) are well suited to remove (cut) parts from their build plates. Xact has this capability.