Delcam will support the "Push the Boundaries" theme adopted for the 2013 AMBA Convention, to be held from April 24th to 26th at the Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center, Schaumburg, IL. At the event, Delcam, together with its local partner, CADCAM Systems, will demonstrate how Delcam’s completely integrated solution for the design, machining and inspection of electrodes can push companies to the highest levels of speed and profitability.
The complete solution combines Delcam’s PowerSHAPE CAD software, PowerMILL CAM system and PowerINSPECT inspection software to enable electrodes to be produced more efficiently and to higher levels of accuracy. Full details are available on the website – www.delcam-electrode.com
The production of electrodes is a key stage in the manufacture of many types of tooling, especially molds, so the availability of a faster, more automated method for their development will increase efficiency and reduce lead times across a number of industries.
At the heart of the novel Delcam solution is a new file format – the .Trode file. This contains all the information for each electrode project, including not only the electrode design but also the machining and inspection information, plus the set-up sheets for its manufacture and use. Having all the required information in a single file simplifies data management as well as increasing overall efficiency.
The initial design stage of the process has been made both easier and faster thanks to the increased range of direct modeling tools available within PowerSHAPE. Users can now quickly and easily define the region where the electrode will be used, extract the shape needed to produce the required feature in the part, and then edit the design to provide clearance from the main surface of the tool and to blend it into the blank size needed to fix the electrode into its holder.
Analysis tools are available to check that the draft angles and minimum radii used in the design will not cause downstream problems, while the ability to simulate the action of the electrode ensures that it will operate as expected. To speed the design process further, catalogues of blanks and holders are included from Erowa, Hirschman and System 3R. Users can add their own standard sizes to these databases.
If a series of similar electrodes is required, the design process can be fully automated. Once the first electrode design has been produced, users need only to select the geometry from the next area and click "Finish” in the electrode design wizard. The wizard will then produce the new design automatically by applying all the settings used for the previous electrode.
Once the design has been finalized, the necessary spark gaps can be specified to provide the machining offsets required in PowerMILL to cut the roughing and finishing electrodes. Inspection points can also be added so that the measurement of the electrode in PowerINSPECT can be automated to a large extent. Then, set-up sheets for the electrode’s manufacture and use can be produced automatically, either to a standard format or to a user-defined template.
Companies that produce multiple electrodes of similar sizes from the same material can develop templates within PowerMILL to machine them in a standardized way. Burn, clearance and blank faces of the electrode are automatically color-coded within PowerSHAPE so that they can be recognized within PowerMILL. The size of the material block and the spark gaps for the electrode family are also read from the .Trode file and applied to the toolpaths automatically. Once the templates have been created, generating the machining toolpaths becomes a fully-automated process.
Specifying the inspection points within PowerSHAPE means that the probe path in PowerINSPECT and the production of the inspection report can also be automated, including undertaking a best-fit analysis of the machined electrode. However, all of PowerINSPECT’s flexibility is available if extra measurements are needed from any areas of the part that are causing concern. The results of the inspection are added to the .Trode file for quality control records.
The automated generation of set-up sheets for both the machining and application of the electrodes ensures that all the data needed at each stage is readily available. A documentation pack, including the GA and detail sheets, can be issued as drawings, HTML files or Microsoft Excel spread sheets.
Finally, Delcam Electrode can provide scripts, the EDM equivalent of CAM programs for machine tools, for equipment from all the leading manufacturers, including AgieCharmilles (Agievision and CT Millennium controls), Makino EDM, Mitsubishi Electric, ONA EDM, OPS-Ingersoll, Sodick and Zimmer & Kreim. These scripts provide an automated process for the programming of the machine, instead of users having to program manually from a set-up sheet.
