Modern electrode production has to meet more requirements than before.
First of all, today's EDM cells have a high throughput, and therefore a constant great hunger for new electrodes. Furthermore, due to the strong separation of individual complex electrodes into many simpler ones, there is even more need. And finally, every electrode has to meet the requirements for accuracy, which continue to increase.
A job management takes care of the necessary organization of these quantities of electrodes, the automation connected to the milling machine ensures the supply of blanks and the removal of milled electrodes, all of them carrying a chip for easy recognition.
What is therefore needed is a highly available milling machine that works safely, efficiently and precisely around the clock in order to continuously supply electrodes to around 3-4 EDM machines.
The extraordinary availability, the high speeds in the spindles and axes, the special kinematics, the thermal stability and the high accuracy of the new five-axis machining centre D200Z from Makino has been designed precisely for this application. This machine can be obtained in the dry graphite version or in the wet graphite version. The latter is suitable if the machine is not only to process graphite but also steel and copper. With a single investment, the area of electrode production and hard milling of inserts can therefore be covered.
