Agie Charmilles

This short-lead-time mold shop achieves its most significant time savings by looking outside the machining cycle. However, one of those elements outside the cycle—palletized setup—ultimately led to cycle time savings via five-axis machining.

Much of a product’s appeal to the consumer has to do with its look and feel—literally, the texture of its visible surface.

The new CUT 1000 OilTech wire EDM was designed for micromachining and other precision applications.

GF AgieCharmilles (Lincolnshire, Illinois) announced its participation in the 2010 NTMA/PMA Contract Manufacturing Purchasing Fair, also known as the Re-Shoring Fair.

While aluminum molds are commonly used to create prototypes or to serve as stopgap bridge tooling, they are starting to receive greater attention for production work. This shop’s approach to creating aluminum molds in one day to three weeks is the same for each of these situations.

GF AgieCharmilles’ CUT 1000 OilTech wire-cut EDM is designed for precision machining of materials better-suited to oil dielectric than water-based dielectric. The EDM is equipped with built-in thermo stabilization.

Designed for high-precision applications in the tool and mold industry, GF AgieCharmilles says its Mikron HSM 300 MoldMaster offers quality surface finishes and high accuracy while also ensuring time-optimized high-speed cutting conditions. The machine includes features and benefits of the company’s GraphiteMaster line, a product consolidation that enables users to choose between MoldMaster (MM) and GraphiteMaster (GM) configurations, increasing flexibility in the job shop.

 GF AgieCharmilles’ Mikron HSM 400U ProdMed is a high-speed, high-performance machining center that is especially suited for medical manufacturing. The center includes a Heidenhain iTNC 530 control system and smart machining modules that provide advanced levels of monitoring critical to the production of medical implants and equipment, the company says. The system allows the machine to automatically check and evaluate tools and workpieces, inspect tools for breakage and perform measurements of the workpiece.

 The FO350 S ram EDM is said to increase productivity and enable fine, shiny surface finishes. The FO350S works in "blade" type applications and pre-roughed 3D cavities. It is designed with a double thermostabilization system that prevents the impact of temperature variations, allowing for maximum accuracy.

The Mikron HSM 400U is said to deliver powerful performance and precision on all five axes to produce high-quality surface finishes for demanding high-precision applications. Designed to accommodate workpieces ranging to 9. 05" × 13.

GF Agie Charmilles’ Mikron HSM 300 MoldMaster now includes the features and benefits of the company’s GraphiteMaster line. According to the company, the product consolidation enables users to choose between MoldMaster and GraphiteMaster configurations, increasing flexibility in the job shop. The mill features fast linear axes and a 30,000-rpm, high-frequency spindle.

GF AgieCharmilles’ operator support system (OSS) automatically configures cutting parameters to optimize machine performance based on specific job requirements. The system is standard on the company’s high speed and high-performance machining centers. OSS provides users with an intuitive interface for entering data that is used to tailor machining processes.

GF AgieCharmilles has announced the debut of the CUT 20, an innovative wire-cutting EDM that combines outstanding performance with remarkable ease of use. The CUT 20 handles wire diameters from . 15 to .

The newest innovation in GF AgieCharmilles' extensive range of diesinking EDM machines is the FORM 20/30, a cost-effective solution that combines ease of use with exceptional performance. Offering consistent reliability, the FORM 20/30 ensures high rigidity, good interference and reduced setup times. Constructed with an ultra rigid cast iron C-frame and cross-table design, the FORM 20/30 guarantees stiffness and is suited to withstand the temperature fluctuations found in the standard workshop environment.

GF AgieCharmilles has announced that it has made a donation to Carbonfund. org on behalf of all IMTS attendees who picked up a Carbonfund. org wristband from the company's booth.

GF AgieCharmilles? OSS (Operator Support System) automatically configures cutting parameters to optimize machine performance based on specific job requirements. Standard on any high-speed or high-performance machining center, OSS provides users with an intuitive interface for entering data that is then used to tailor machining processes. When using OSS, operators are asked to rank the relative priority of a job's accuracy, cutting time and surface quality.

A shop specializing in wire EDM for large mold components now offers EDM “turning” of small, intricate parts. Despite the potential risks involved in early adoption of new technologies, the shop believes this practice gives it a leg-up on the competition and lets it gain experience with alternative machining techniques before offering them to customers.

Modular workpiece fixturing plays a vital role in this shop’s quest to win larger, more difficult wire EDM jobs.

EDM dielectric additives can subtract labor costs for mold makers by eliminating the need for secondary hand polishing.

This ram EDM unit was designed with a number of EDM "reduction" trends in mind-reduced floorspace requirements, rate of electrode wear and operation learning curve.

High speed cutting with wire electrical discharge machining produces debris in the dielectric at a high rate. Without effective filtration, a wire machine quickly loses its ability to maintain high cutting speed, achieve the desired surface finish and obtain expected dimensional accuracy. Charmilles' approach to solving this problem has been to develop a filtration system that doubles the number of filter cartridges, from two to four.

Realizing the need to improve maintenance of dies and molds, this company purchased a ram EDM from Charmilles.

The development of automatic 'tool' changing for wire electrical discharge machining promises to revise the process strategies applied to many wirecut workpieces.

In mold and die work, simultaneous five-axis machining is a proven technology, as is high speed machining (HSM). High speed simultaneous five-axis machining, however, is still a pioneering development.

Electrical discharge machining (EDM) has a long tradition of being one of the most pioneering of metalworking technologies. Shops with EDM learned (by necessity) to deal with unattended operation long before it became feasible elsewhere.

The move into shortrun production projects is changing Advanced Machining's product mix, and Bobby Miller, Advanced's other co-owner, says it's good to be making this transition. The shop continues to receive custom, oneofakind jobs, but it's also garnering an increasing number of productiontype jobs that demand attention only until the first successful production parts come off. The latter situation is attractive, Mr. Miller explains, because at this point, it's just a matter of letting the machine run to process the parts.

When Osley and Whitney, Inc. (Westfield, Massachusetts) decided to upgrade its wire EDM (electrical discharge machining) capabilities, the company had several problems it wanted to solve. Osley and Whitney, a 48-year-old plastic injection moldbuilding company with 68 employees, serves automotive, automotive aftermarket, consumer, sporting goods and office machine companies.

Find out here how this Windsor, Ontario, job shop made a big move to ram EDM successfully.

MIE rests its reputation on its ability to machine large parts quickly using GFAGIECHilles Technologies' ROBOFIL 300 and its newest wire EDM machine with a Fanuc control, the ROBOFIL 510F, Mr. McGrail said.

This manufacturing company was faced with a dilemma common to many companies in today's manufacturing environment. Change their process to include CNC or lose valuable customers.

This Dallas-based job shop specializes in the fabrication of very high taper pieces in stainless steel and aluminum. Often involved in larger profile work, they faced a challenge not uncommon in EDM: the tendency for some cutting wires to break.

Die Tech & Engineering describes how palletization and five-axis machining work together to deliver efficiency.