Wire EDM Machine Operation Introduction
Copyright June, 98 Page i Sodick Inc.
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Welcome To Sodick Inc and to Sodick Wire EDM training!
What is EDM? Contrary to what you may have heard, EDM does not stand for Evil
Demon Magic. Electrical Discharge Machining was discovered in the 1940’s. The first
commercial EDM’s appeared on the market in the early 1950’s. These were the vertical,
or ram type, machines (also known as die-sinking machines or “sinkers”). Wire EDM
came along in the late 1960’s, with the advent of the first numerical controls and has
experienced explosive growth. Wire or sinker EDMs can cut any material that conducts
electricity.
The Sodick wire EDM control has two sides, the CNC side and the conversational side.
This course will teach you the CNC side and machine operation. Many operation
procedures will be practiced in class. By the time you finish this course, you should feel
quite comfortable with the machine and should be confident with your abilities.
The CNC side allows you to enter and run CNC programs using M, T and G codes. If you
have a CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) system, your CAM system will be out-
putting data in a way that the CNC side can understand. Manually programming this side
of the control can be tedious. You must do quite a bit of math, and follow strict
formatting rules to make your manually written program work.
The conversational side uses a CNC programming language called APT. APT is a
graphical programming language where points, lines and circles are predefined first, then
the tool path must be defined and then a NC program is created that the wire EDM
machine can run. Because many customers do not use APT (they are programming using
CAD\CAM) there are VHS videotapes and training manuals showing how to use it.
As a wire EDM operator, you MUST have a basic understanding of manual programming
techniques to fully understand your control. If for no other reason than to gain an
appreciation for what a CAD|CAM system can do for you, learning CNC programming
techniques furthers your understanding of how the wire EDM operates. But a more
important reason for learning the CNC side is that you will find times when it is
necessary to edit and modify programs. Also, if you understand some of the advanced
CNC side programming techniques (like Q routines), you can dramatically shorten the
time it takes to create programs.
We wish you the best of luck with the new information that is about to be presented.
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