Mitsubishi sinker features

[claya]

We need to upgrade from an Eltee that has capacitive discharge. We almost exclusively burn Niobium and other hard metals. Does anyone know if Mitsubishi sinkers have CD or similar feature for hard/high temp metals? We are looking at 96-2000 era Mitsi machines. (EX, EA, etc.. )

We also need small hole drilling occasionally. Can I use a C-axis machine for edm small hole (~0.03 range) drilling or is it too slow, or is the pump pressure too low?

 

[RJT]

We have an EX8 and burn a lot of hard D2 and 440C stainless. I don't think it will be practical for a .03" hole very deep, we also have a hole popper for that kind of thing. I've never tried a hole popper electrode (brass tube with a web) in our CNC sinker, but it's an interesting idea. We burn print dies with a lot of fine detail, milling electrodes with a .005" end mill .025 deep in graphite, then burning the detail .020 deep.

 

[claya]

We have an EX8 and burn a lot of hard D2 and 440C stainless. I don't think it will be practical for a .03" hole very deep, we also have a hole popper for that kind of thing. I've never tried a hole popper electrode (brass tube with a web) in our CNC sinker, but it's an interesting idea. We burn print dies with a lot of fine detail, milling electrodes with a .005" end mill .025 deep in graphite, then burning the detail .020 deep.

Ya. Niobium, Tungsten are not the same thing as D2 or 440c. Melt temp on Niobium is 4744°F, so crazy higher than steels. Most machines do not have CD, but Mitsubishi has a similar feature on the less than 10yr old machines. I just do not know when that got added as a feature. Some of you old schoolers hopefully can chime in. CD was added for Tungsten -Carbide from my understanding.

We do not have hole popping, so have to compensate creatively. How fast is the rpm on the C-axis? What pressure is the flush down the spindle?

 

[SteveEx30]

I burn Carbide on my EX series from time to time with good results. Mostly .100" to .200" thick and mostly holes and countersink details. Poco C3 electrodes

Some machines came optioned with the Circuit specifically for Carbide to improve on burning times.

As for the small holes, get a hole popper

 

[claya]

Steve, Do you you know what the carbide option was called on the EX, 90's era machines? ( They call it HPS now). Is the carbide option specific to the control models numbers? I was not doing EDM then, and most of my mentors that were around are gone, retired, or doing steels in the 90's -2000 era, etc... Or using different brand machines. We use other shops for hole pop, but does not always work for schedule. We are a proto shop.