Metal Cutting

EDM Equipment
In EDM, or electrical discharge machining, the equivalent of tiny lightning bolts perform the material removal. Though slow in terms of metal removal rate, EDM is capable of machining complex shapes in hard materials. Mold and die makers, as well as makers of jet engine components, rely on EDM routinely. The process includes an electrode and a workpiece, both submerged in dielectric fluid. Current flows between the workpiece and electrode, repeatedly creating tiny plasma zones with temperatures around 10,000 degrees C. The high temperatures produce localized, instantaneous melting of the material. Though the process may seem violent, it occurs on such a tiny scale that the resulting metal removal can be precisely controlled. The electrode in EDM takes different forms. Wire EDM machines use a thin wire to cut with electricity, with the wire advancing into the hard metal part as if it was a slow-motion saw blade. By contrast, ram EDM machines, which are also called “die sinkers,” use electrodes that are custom machined into 3D shapes. The EDM process then produces a cavity in the part that is the opposite or female version of the “male” electrode form. Similar to the ram EDM machine is the small-hole EDM machine, or “hole popper.” On this machine, the electrode is a cylinder used to machine a hole. Often these machines are used simply to provide starter holes for wire EDM, but the technology may also be used to machine finished holes in materials that are too difficult to drill.

Featured Zone Content

February 2012

A Big-Picture View of Micromachining


 Matrix Tooling makes injection molds for components that have features you cannot see.

January 2012

Wire EDM with a Twist


Wire EDM units that swivel a horizontally guided electrode wire in a CNC-controlled E axis give this shop the workpiece clearance and flexibility to produce complex, high-precision PCD-tipped cutting tools.



April 2013
Sodick AG600LH wire EDM

Wire EDM Offers Additional Height

By: Modern Machine Shop
Sodick’s high-precision AG600LH wire EDM incorporates an additional Z height.

April 2013

Sixty Years of EDM

By: Mark Albert
GF AgieCharmilles has been involved in EDM technology for some 60 years now. Its recent International Technology Show in Losone, Switzerland was a good place to sense the history and current status of this technology.

April 2013

GF AgieCharmilles ITS

By: Mark Albert
Guests from around the world gathered at GF AgieCharmilles’ main building in Losone, Switzerland, for the company’s International Technology Show, March 19-23, 2013. More than 700 users attended the event.

February 2013

Straight Talk about Cutting Steep Tapers with Wire EDM

By: Mark Albert
The RoboCut C400iA and two sizes of the larger C600iA wire EDM machines from Methods Machine Tools enable unusually steep tapers to be cut with the wire EDM process by positioning the workpiece with a rotary-tilt table.

January 2013
Mitsubishi EDM’s MV series

Don’t Discount the Small Stuff

By: Matt Danford
At least in the short term, the most significant machine design changes aren’t always the most significant difference-makers on the shop floor.


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