Mainstream of China Wire Cutting Industry-Medium Speed WEDM-1

According to some information, at present, the wire-cut electrical discharge machining industry in China takes on a form of fragmented world in China. It includes a lot of well-known EDM machine tool manufacturers and some centralized EDM machine tool industrial clusters. 

WEDM is also known as the cut line which is a manufacturing process whereby a desired shape is obtained by using electrical discharges (sparks). It will remove the material from the workpiece by a series of rapidly recurring current discharges between two electrodes and separate it by a dielectric liquid. The material will be subject to an electric voltage. One of the electrodes is called the tool-electrode, or simply the "tool" or "electrode," while the other is called the workpiece-electrode, or "work piece." The process depends upon the tool and work piece not making actual contact. 

When the voltage between the two electrodes is increased, the intensity of the electric field in the volume between the electrodes becomes higher than the strength of the dielectric (at least in some places), which allows the current to flow between the two electrodes. This phenomenon is the same as the breakdown of a capacitor. As a result, material is removed from the electrodes. It is mainly used for processing a variety of complex shapes and precision small parts, such as the punch die, fixed panels, boards.

So, why does China’s wire cutting industry regard “Medium Speed WEDM” as their mainstream? In this article, I will tell you differences between three types of wire-cutting machining and the reason why MS-WEDM is the mainstream. Let’s see the answers from a veteran craftsman who has been working in the EDM machine tool industry for ten years. 

Why does China’s wire cutting industry regard “Medium Speed WEDM” as their mainstream?

“Although there are a lot of enterprises related to wire cutting industry in China, the mainstream is always middle speed WEDM.”, a veteran craftsman who has been working in the EDM machine tool industry for ten years said. Most insiders of wire cutting industry know that there are three kinds of wire-cut electrical discharge machining which includes WEDM-LS, WEDM-HS, and WEDM-MS. Among these three types, the WEDM-LS owns the highest technical content (the highest machining accuracy), which means that the cost of research and development will be higher than the other two types. Correspondingly, the price of WEDM tools will be higher as well. That is to say, the use cost of WEDM-LS in these three types of WEDM machine tools is the most expensive, and price-performance ratio is relatively low. Therefore, most enterprises have to use the machine tool which is less expensive. They will adopt the CNC Medium Speed Wire Cut EDM machine tool. Of course, there are some high-precision manufacturers who have to use the WEDM-LS. Their products have a higher requirement for the machine tool. 

The craftsman added that “As for WEDM-HS, although its price is the lowest among three types of machine tools, the machining precision is relatively low. Even though the cutting speed is fast, it cannot meet the requirements of high-precision products in related enterprises.”

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