Offering a ‘hole’ lot more

Uploaded 10 Nov @ 09:53am

Available from exclusive UK and Eire agent, Warwick Machine Tools, the Excetek HD 30Z high-speed small hole EDM drilling machine offers an exceptional performance to price ratio for engineering companies looking to generate single or multiple holes accurately in metallic components.
Hole drilling by EDM uses low cost electrode tube normally made of brass or copper to drill holes into an electrically conductive material at a very high speed. The hole depth diameter ratio is exceptionally long and the HD 30Z can produce hole diameters from 0.15 to 3 mm. This technology is widely used for hole machining in aerospace, energy, cutting tools, automotive, medical, mould and die, and general precision engineering industries.
Within a very compact footprint the HD 30Z can quickly machine blind or through holes in workpieces of suitable material up to 150 mm high. The 400 by 260 mm worktable can accommodate parts weighing up to 250 kg. Axis travels are 300 mm in X, 200 mm in Y and 345 mm in Z, with a 1 micron resolution inch/mm DRO for each of the linear axes.
Sales Manager, Andrew Kilshaw, explains: “High-speed EDM hole drilling was designed especially for fast, accurate small- and deep-hole drilling applications. Small holes that were once almost impossible to drill with conventional machine tools are now being performed with ease. With the capability of drilling through virtually any conductive material, the use of this technology is continually expanding.
“Initially, engineering businesses were using this technology specifically to create start holes for wire EDM jobs. Because of this technology, workpiece materials can be sent out for heat treating prior to drilling the start hole. It removed a couple of problems for many machine shops. The first being to program, locate and drill the start hole by conventional machine methods in the ‘soft’ workpiece prior to heat treat and the second, by sending the workpiece for heat treat before drilling the start hole, all the stresses were being removed from the workpiece prior to the EDM process being applied.”
The control unit fitted to the HD 30Z provides 9 sets of optimised parameters to suit the material and electrode size selection with a save function for repeat jobs. The AC servo motor driven Z-axis has an auto zero function making it easy to monitor the cutting depth, while the Z-axis end of sparking with auto move up function reduces cycle times. Sparking depth electrode consumption estimates the life of the electrode in operation.

Further reading: www.warwickmachinetools.co.uk