New AgieCharmilles wire EDM machines to be unveiled at May open house

The new Cut P range will replace the company’s Cut Sp and Cut mS series of wire EDM machines and, from a price/performance perspective, occupies the position between the Cut E series at one end of the spectrum, and the Cut 1000/2000/3000 series’ of machines at the other.

There are four different sized machines in the new Cut P series and, at the open house event in May, the company will be showcasing one of these new machines – the Cut P 550 which features an automatic sliding door, linear scales, X-, Y-, Z-, U- and V-axis travels of 550mm, 350mm, 400mm, 500mm and 350mm respectively, and a 900mm by 600mm table.

In addition to the new machine, visitors will also be able to see a number of other machines in action from GF Machining Solutions’ extensive and diverse product portfolio.

These include: Cut E350 and Cut E600 wire EDM machines; a Form 200 die-sink machine integrated with a WorkPartner 1+ automation system, and a Mikron HEM 500U 5-axis machining centre. Visitors will also have the opportunity to find out more about the company’s laser texturing and additive manufacturing (AM) machine tool technologies.

The new Cut P machines will appeal to precision component manufacturers and mould makers looking for a fast, flexible, high-accuracy and reliable wire EDM machine, and feature a number of technology advantages designed to deliver process optimisation and security.

At the heart of all four Cut P machines is GF Machining Solutions’ digital generator technology. The upgraded IPG (Intelligent Power Generator) helps manufacturers cut parts faster – on average up to 20% faster than the previous Sp/mS machines.

The IPG generator, through its real-time spark condition monitoring capabilities, controls and adapts the spark according to prevailing machining conditions to ensure fast and high-accuracy machining (positional and contour accuracies are ±2µm), and an ability to realise surface finishes of Ra 0.08µm

The Cut P machines also feature a number of integrated onboard Smart technologies to help customers exploit the machines’ full potential and, in doing so, increase their productivity and reduce lead-times. These include the Power-Expert, Surface-Expert, Wire-Expert, Profil-Expert, and Taper-Expert systems.

Power-Expert optimises rough cutting speeds and, calculating the height of the part, determines the optimum power to send through the wire automatically. Surface-Expert controls sparking parameters during finishing operations to ensure superior surface finishes and, as a consequence, minimal secondary polishing requirements. Wire-Expert – irrespective of the height of the part, Wire-Expert controls the wear of the wire ensuring that high geometrical accuracies are always realised.

During roughing and finishing operations, Profil-Expert automatically adjusts machining parameters (including speed) when a change of direction is detected, enabling fine and intricate details to be machined. Finally, Taper-Expert enables large taper angles to be machined accurately and quickly - 0 to 30° (45° as an option). The system corrects, in real-time and during machining, the wire position in relation to the angle being machined.

These Expert systems in addition to the machines’ Quadrax and fixed table design, Integrated Collision Protection (ICP) on all 5-axes, and Advanced Thermo-stabilisation systems make the Cut P series amongst the most versatile, reliable and dependable wire EDM machines on the market.

“Cut P machines are flexible and powerful. They provide customers with over 600 dedicated and proven on-board technologies covering a wide range of parts from 1mm to 800mm in height, and an equally wide range of different materials from steel, copper and carbide to aluminium, titanium, PCD and graphite,” says Martin Spencer, managing director, GF Machining Solutions UK.

“Customers do not need to reinvent the wheel when machining jobs and components – instead they can tap into our best-practice knowledge and expertise (accessed via the machines’ Human Machine Interface control), and improve their productivity and performance as a result.”

Cut P machines provide users with a high degree of autonomy. In addition to the machines’ automatic wire threading/re-threading capability, and their ability to accommodate large (25kg) wire spools – both of which help to facilitate secure lights-out, unattended operations, the machines also have an automatic slug management (ASM) system that reduces manual intervention and increases process reliability. These features, plus the machines’ ability to be integrated easily to robots and automation systems increases their productivity potential and improves ROI.

The AC Cut HMI available on the Cut P machines helps customers significantly reduce set-up times, and via their new 19-inch LCD TFT touchscreens enable users to quickly access and use the many and varied on-board technologies.

Cut P wire machines are economic to run and are environmentally-friendly. They feature Econowatt – GF Machining Solutions’ energy conserving technology that reduces or turns off the power supply when machining operations have been completed or have been interrupted.

GF Machining Solutions UK www.gfms.com/uk