EDM Department Inc.
For a visitor, operations at EDM Department Inc. in Bartlett, Illinois, seem closer to pure science than the manufacture of precision products. EDM Laboratory might therefore be a more suitable name for the company! Studying what it is capable of producing requires a proper microscope. To examine the differently shaped electrodes presented during our visit, we used one with a 200:1 magnification.
The NC program for manufacturing this electrode is 1,320,000 lines long!
Mark Raleigh, founder and GM, is a softly spoken gentleman who does not readily use big words when speaking of his company’s operations. This also applies to dimensions – micro machining with nano features!
The cutting tools used here are so small that, in comparison, an ordinary dental drill looks like something employed in mining operations. Whether they are for an electrode or a finished component, the NC programmes controlling these tiny cutting tools are mighty. The programme for the electrode we studied was 1,320,000 lines long! For a finished volume of approx. .005 cu. inch (88 mm3), the total machining time was 6.5 hours in three stages with three different cutting tools.
Mark Raleigh has extensive experience in precision. His positions have included one as the head of moulding tool production in the Molex Group. Barely ten years ago, he started his own business. “The principal idea was along the lines of offering production technology consultancy services for the manufacture of moulding tools and precision products,” states Mark. For the most part, customers are active in the communication, medical and defence industries. Assignments are primarily linked to the development phase of new products. The first question asked by customers is often: “Can this be produced?”
Mark: “Initially, the response is almost always technical advice and the presentation of possible production technology solutions. It can then be a question of finding someone to do the job. This is not always easy. Consequently, we most frequently end up producing moulding tools, prototypes or short series ourselves.”
“Today we manufacture electrodes that opens new possibilities for the production of nano-precision moulds and components.”
Thus, the intended consultancy operations have increasingly moved towards production, Mark and his seventeen coworkers being entirely focused on precision or, indeed, ultra precision. In fact, component production now accounts for more business than does the manufacture of moulding tools.
All new employees have a university degree in, for example, mechanics or automation. “Common to them all is that they like mathematics and have good analytical abilities,” relates Mark. He continues: “To provide greater stimulation, they also each have two separate work roles, for example, operator and IT supervisor.”
When we visited, the factory was busy with moulding tools for a complete series of new connectors for the space industry. Although they had from 9 to 95 pins each, none of the finished connectors was bigger than 0.5 inches (12.5 mm)!
“We make graphite electrodes where one ‘wall’ can be 0.009 inches (0.025 mm) thick and 0.029 inches (0.8 mm) high,” reveals Mark. “It goes without saying that such dimensions require not only absolutely top-class machines, cutting tools and programs, but also exact mounting of the workpiece. As early as my Molex days, we evaluated what the market had to offer in the form of streamlined interfaces for electrode manufacture and electrical discharge machining. Ever since then, System 3R’s reference systems have been an essential part of my professional activities.”
System 3R’s Macro system equips all the company’s machines. These include four EDM machines that are run 20 hours a day, seven days a week. Recent expansion has brought new workstations for three designers/problem solvers and a higher degree of automation. The goal is set at 75 percent unmanned production.
High expectations on what can be achieved with the combination MacroNano and Makino EDAC1.
Investment has just been made in a Makino EDAC1. This has been equipped with a MacroNano chuck on the machine table. Mark: “We have high expectations of what we should be able to achieve with this machine combination. However, fine tuning will probably take a little time. When it’s a question of ten thousandths of an inch, there’s more to it than just pushing a button.”
Mark Raleigh concludes: “Using System 3R’s vibration-damped chucks, Macro VDP, we have ‘honed’ our electrode manufacturing capacity. If we look at ‘microelectrodes’, we could previously produce them with a 12:1 length to diameter ratio. We’ve now succeeded with a ratio of 35:1. The fact is that we are now manufacturing electrodes that were quite impossible before. Naturally, this opens entirely new possibilities for the production of nano-precision moulding tools and components.”
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Related links:
MacroNano
VDP