#1

February 3rd, 2011, 12:57 PM

Alan Richter
CTE Editor

Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 23

Rotary Burn: Rotary axis turns a wire EDM into a lathe:

Adding a submersible rotary axis to a wire EDM, where a chuck mounted on a rotary table holds the workpiece rather than clamping it to the machines worktable, serves several purposes. These are particularly useful for producing microparts. EDMingunlike grinding, turning or millingis a noncontact process and therefore doesnt exert side pressure on delicate part features, including those with diameters of 0.002" and smaller. That enables, for example, production of long, skinny parts. You would have a very hard time milling a shape with a 200:1 aspect ratio simply because the forces tend to deflect the part, said Marcus Carius, a former dentist and owner of Implant Mechanix, a Vancouver, British Columbia, job shop that focuses on design, development and prototyping of dental devices. You dont have that with wire. Index, turn and spin Index and burn, also known as turn and burn, is the basic function a rotary EDM axis performs. The EDM operator pushes the start button and the rotary table moves the workpiece to a specific location. When the table stops, the EDM head cuts the required feature while the part is stationary before being indexed to the next location for further cutting, explained Peter Knowles, president of Hirschmann Engineering USA Inc., Schaumburg, Ill., a manufacturer of EDM rotary and tilting tables and other EDM products.

In rotary EDMing, the table can rotate in coordinated motion with other axes for simultaneous 5-axis cutting. In this case, the part is rotated during the cut. Photo courtesy GF AgieCharmilles. A more sophisticated method is having the rotary axis interface with the control so the

spark generator drives the rotary motionturn while burn, noted Larry Wetmore, western region sales representative for EDM Network Inc., a Sugar Grove, Ill., EDM distributor and rebuilder. That enables the table to rotate simultaneously with any other axis motion in a coordinated manner and allows the control to monitor the servo speed and rotary positioning and set the metal-removal parameters. An EDM is not like a mill, where you just give it a feed rate and it shoves the cutter through the material at that rate, Wetmore said. With an EDM, both sinker and wire, the control is always monitoring the cutting action and adjusting the servos and the spark based on each cut. For example, an EDM control might slow the wire, or even reverse its direction, if the wire approaches a short-out situation. When the rotary axis external control interfaces with a wire EDM via an M codewherein it handshakes with the machine, allowing it to run automaticallyit is also referred to as an A- or B-axis, Knowles noted. Having a rotary axis integrate directly with the machine control eliminates the external control and enables synchronous motion. In this case, if you can turn while burn, you can index and burn, he said. When integrating a rotary axis into a wire EDM, its important that the unit has a low profile so the machines upper and lower heads can be positioned as close as possible to the workpiece. This is necessary to achieve the tight tolerances typically specified for micro parts and features, explained Gisbert Ledvon, business development manager for EDM builder GF AgieCharmilles, Lincolnshire, Ill. Ledvon noted that the smallest wire it offers for turn-while-burn applications is 0.0008" (20m) in diameter. That limits how small the part or feature can be. If your part is only 20 microns in diameter, you will have a problem, he said. The spark energy is too big, and the part will be destroyed or break off. GF AgieCharmilles equips its wire machines for rotary EDMing with JauchSchmider microerosion spindles, which have a maximum rotation of 3,000 rpm and a maximum radial runout of 0.002mm. If a customer decides not to buy it at the beginning, we can always integrate it later on, Ledvon said, noting that once integrated into an EDM the spindle typically stays with the machine, unless it needs to be removed to accommodate a larger part. In contrast, a stand-alone rotary table with an external control can be positioned anywhere on a wire EDMs table and moved to any machine required, stated Ann Mazakas, manager of technical communications for CAM software developer DP Technology Corp., Camarillo, Calif., in her white paper titled Non-Traditional Wire EDM in Modern Manufacturing. Automatic sequencing with the machine tool program can be achieved through an interface cable, usually via an M code. To move the table and control to any other machine requires each machine to have a connector for the interface cable. A third rotary EDM function is high-speed spinning, where the workpiece spins around the rotary axis while the wire cuts a 2-axis profile. This is also known as EDM turning, or spin and burn.

A GF AgieCharmilles Cut 1000 OilTech wire EDM with a JauchSchmider 30319 micro-erosion spindle for the B-axis was used to apply a 20m-dia. wire to produce an instrument for performing eye surgery (pictured below). Photos courtesy GF AgieCharmilles.

With EDM turning, you want to make sure the wire is held vertical and rigid while the workpiece spins, Mazakas said during a telephone interview. She noted that because the workpiece material for EDM turning applications is often expensive, the initial rough cut, a series of indexing moves, should remove the largest piece of material possible. It drops to the bottom of the tank and can easily be recovered later and recycled, Mazakas said. After the first cut, the EDM indexes the workpiece to the opposite side and another large chunk of material is cut. Finish-EDM-turning resembles a lathe contouring operation where small amounts of material are removed, except no tool pressure is applied to the workpiece, Mazakas noted.

High-speed EDM turning is ideal for cutting small, dynamically balanced parts because no cutting forces are involved. Notches, flats, helical grooves and tiny slots can be easily cut in the same setup. Photo courtesy DP Technology. Spin-and-burn tables do not need to interface with the EDMs control or provide cuttingcondition feedback, according to Carius. He added that spin-and-burn tables offer the lowest cost and simplest-to-install option for spinning a workpiece in a wire EDM. With spin and burn, coordinating positioning moves between the rotary spindle and the other axes isnt normally possible. For a spin-and-burn application where youre pretending your wire EDM is a lathe, typically you need a high spindle speed, but you dont need to slave the rotary axis to the discharge generator, he said. In other words, you run the spindle independently, so its a dumb spindle. However, a recent development is an integrated all-in-one A-axis that can index and burn, turn while burn, and spin and burn. Up until this past year, the problem was that none of the machine controls could handle all three in one unit, said Hirschmanns Knowles. He added that not all EDM builders currently provide that capability, but more OEMs are considering adapting this capability because they realize theyve got competitors who can do this and they cant. Software, other considerations Effective rotary EDMing requires CAM software developed for the task at hand. In her white paper, Mazakas recommends selecting software that can: Enter machine data about the rotary table. Provide specialized machining functionality for a wire EDM with a rotary axis. Simplify programming through machining features that include data specific to EDM parts, such as lead-in/lead-out points, thread points and plane orientation for positioning moves. Reliably simulate rotary EDMing. Enable reliable NC output.

DP Technology, for example, offers its ESPRIT CAM software with functionality for rotary EDMing integrated into the package, Mazakas noted. Its not a separate module, she said, noting that its suitable for stand-alone and integrated rotary tables. When you define your machine in the software, you just define a rotary axis. Careful consideration is also needed when selecting the equipment for rotary EDMing. The deionized water a rotary table is submerged in promotes corrosion, so the unit must be

completely sealed, EDM Networks Wetmore said. He added that a tables design must prevent current from flowing through its specialized bearings and other critical components to prevent them from eroding.

The 1.6mm-dia. and 7.9mm-long Nitinol surgical pin on the left has a coarse finish compared to the one on the right, which was indexed 48 times and burned with a roughing and two skim passes per index. The deviation from cylindricity is under 0.002mm for the pin with the fine finish, but the processing time was unacceptably long and not needed for part functionality, according to Implant Mechanix. Photo courtesy Implant Mechanix. Keeping radial runout to a minimum is also a key factor, especially because its paramount that the rotary axis spin at 1,500 rpm, or faster, when manufacturing round parts, according to Knowles. Radial runout for most of our units is better than 0.000080", he said. Of course, the EDM itself must provide the required capabilities for the rotary task at hand, but that doesnt necessarily mean investing in the latest, greatestand probably priciest machine. For instance, Implant Mechanix purchased a used 1996 Sodick A320D EDM from EDM Network to turn-while-burn dental implant components, prototypes and low-volume parts as small as 0.5mm in diameter. Carius noted that his clinical background helps him engineer and manufacture dental products for the gadget-oriented profession. Dentists love to invent, he said.

That inventiveness assists him in exploiting his rotary EDMs capabilities. The rotary axis makes the machine for me, because I do so much toolroom work and relatively little production work, Carius said, adding that a typical example is a small run of Nitinol pins for a surgical screwdriver. Unlike spin and burn, Carius noted that the rotation speed on a turn-while-burn unit may be as slow as 1 rpm, or slower, to permit the generator setting to precisely advance the wire along its instructed path and interpolate the axis to the movement of the axis to cut a specific spiral pitch, if desired.

Implant Mechanix developed this experimental surgical bur for conducting scientific research on rodents and rotary-EDMed it out of 440C stainless steel with a hardness of 56 HRC. The objective was to find a cutter geometry that could ream bone with the most control of cutting depth and final osteotomy without overheating the bone. The reduced shank permits copious saline irrigation to help cool the bone during surgery. Photo courtesy Implant Mechanix. According to EDM Networks Wetmore, Carius EDM didnt have turn-while-burn capability when new, but its design allowed modification of the control to drive an additional simultaneous cutting axis. During the refurbishment process, because I did that sale myself, I knew Marcus needed a W-axis on that machine, and we were able to provide it and modify the control so it could drive the W-axis, Wetmore said.

For his particular niche, a rotary EDM enables Carius to create the little stuff with weird and complex geometries that require lots of indexing, but the technology often doesnt make economic sense for a typical job shop because idle time would be too great without a specific need. Its expensive as hell, he said. Youre going to drop $28,000, $30,000 on a rotary axis. For $30,000, you can put a turning center on your floor that will outproduce a rotary axis on a wire EDM by orders of magnitude.

The Hirschmann H100ABR.NC 2-axis tilting and dividing table is for EDMing complex part geometries. The B-axis has a 100mm-dia. faceplate with holes for mounting fixtures. Photo courtesy Hirschmann Engineering. Carius added that wire EDMs are maintenance-intensive because of the corrosive work-zone environment. Everything rusts, rots and falls apart, he said. Its part of the territory. In addition, high consumable costsincluding the wire, deionizing resin and components that wear and require regular replacementmust be considered. It sets a barrier to entry, for sure. Nonetheless, rotary EDMs are capable of some phenomenal things you cant get from any other technology, Carius said. Of course, the usefulness of the machine depends on your

creativity. DP Technologys Mazakas concurred: Imagination is the biggest limitation on the parts that can be cut with a rotary EDM. The combination of part rotation and movement of the wire during the burn supports part geometry that often cannot be created in any other manner. About the author: Alan Richter is senior editor of MICROmanufacturing.