When Electrode Volume Is High: How Cimatron Electrode Design Keeps the EDM Department on Schedule
EDM work is a bottleneck in a lot of toolrooms and the bottleneck usually begins before the machine does. Electrode design is the starting point.
When designing 20, 30 or more electrodes for a complex mold cavity, it takes a lot of time when done manually. Then there’s inspection paperwork, machining setup sheets and making sure the right electrode ends up at the right burn location. By the time all that is arranged, the EDM machine may have been waiting for days.
Cimatron Electrode Design was created to relieve some of the weight of that process. Here’s how it works in a real EDM department.
Automated Electrode Design from Cavity Geometry
The point of origin for any electrode is the burn surface, that part of the cavity which must be machined by EDM because it is inaccessible to a cutting tool. This is where Cimatron’s electrode design tools come into play. You can select that surface right on the mold model and automatically create the electrode geometry from it.
The software builds the electrode geometry for you, with standard allowances and extensions, instead of you having to build the electrode geometry manually from scratch for each feature. This alone is a major time saving for a mold with many EDM features.
Gap Management and Assignment Holder
Electrode is only good if mounted properly. Cimatron’s environment handles holder assignment inside the same workflow, you don’t jump to a separate tool to match electrodes to holders and figure out gap values. Everything remains in one place.
The final dimensions are critically dependent on the gap management, i.e. the spark gap between the electrode and the cavity surface. Too much and the cavity will be undersized, too little and you risk contact. Cimatron manages the gap values in the course of the electrode design, minimizing the risk of errors that can only be detected after burning.
Documentation That Saves Time for the Machine
One of the most unappreciated causes of delay in EDM work is electrode paperwork. If an operator doesn’t have clear information on which electrode goes where, what the gap values are, and what the burn depth should be, they’re either going to waste time figuring it out or they’re going to make mistakes.
Design data can be used to automatically generate electrode drawings and setup sheets in Cimatron. The operator receives:
- Clear identification of which electrode belongs to which cavity feature
- Gap values and burn depth for each operation
- Reference geometry to verify position prior to burning
- Change tracking so it is known what version of the electrode is current
Good documentation is production documentation. It gets that electrode to the machine properly, first time.
Electrode Machining NC Programming
Before heading to the EDM department, electrodes are machined, usually in graphite or copper. The electrode design environment of Cimatron is directly integrated with the NC programming environment so that toolpaths for the electrode machining can be generated from the same electrode geometry used for burn documentation.
No need to export and re-import geometry. No risk of the machined electrode being slightly different from what was designed because of a translation error. The geometry is the same geometry throughout the process.
Compound Effect on Schedule
In a high volume EDM department the individual time savings per electrode compound add up rapidly. If a mold has 25 electrodes to make and Cimatron saves two hours of design and documentation time per electrode, that means 50 hours back on the schedule – not to mention less errors and re-burns.
For toolrooms struggling to hit delivery dates on complex molds, that kind of schedule recovery is not marginal, it’s the difference between on time and late.
Is your EDM department causing delays in your mold deliveries? PELF Engineering can help you determine if Cimatron Electrode Design solves the root cause. Extend an invitation and start a conversation.