Proactive Performance Optimisation Model for EDM Operation

Faced with stiff competition, regional mould makers are compelled to seek for cost effective methods to increase their performance in the production of large, error free and fully engineered moulds all within a very short lead-time - 4 weeks. One of the major challenges in mould making is associated with the pre-EDM (electro-discharge machining) activities. The EDM process itself is a highly accurate but slow process that uses a large variety of precisely machined electrodes for eroding thin walls and sharp pockets on both the cores and cavities. Most of the preventable errors arise during the setup of the electrodes, measurement of offset values, insertion of offset values into the EDM programme, validation of electrode sequence and exchange of work in progress status. This paper described an innovative, cost effective and easily adaptable shop-floor solution to eliminate all these potential errors together with the manual effort required. Five units of the Makino EDNC 65 EDM machine and the EROWA 2D pre-setter were tested on the prototype. With the implementation on 5 machines, Fu Yu Corp has reported that it is now possible for two operators to manage five EDM concurrently (instead of 3), representing a performance gain of 66%.