Method and apparatus for electroerosion machining with a vibrating wire electrode
AssigneeInoue-Japax Research Incorporated
InventorKiyoshi Inoue
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electroerosion machining method and apparatus with a continuous, traveling-wire electrode in which vibrations of frequencies not lower than 100 Hz, preferably at least 1 kHz and of an amplitude of 1 to 50 microns (.mu.m), preferably of at most 5 .mu.m are applied to the traveling wire electrode at opposite sides with respect to the machining region of an electrically conductive workpiece. The method may be used advantageously in reforming a workpiece contour previously shaped by a traveling-wire rough-EDM operation. A resonant circuit connected in series or in parallel with the machining gap and optionally coupled with an external oscillator may be used to energize electromechanical transducers forming vibrator means.
Claims21
A method of electroerosion-machining an electrically conductive workpiece with a wire electrode which is stretched to extend along a straight line path across the workpiece while being axially transported from a supply site to a collection site to axially travel through the workpiece continuously along said path, said method comprising the steps of:
- relatively displacing said wire electrode and said workpiece transversely to the axis of said traveling wire electrode while defining a machining gap therebetween;
- supplying a machining liquid to said gap;
- applying a series of electrical pulses between said workpiece and said electrode to generate machining discharges across the gap, thereby removing material from said workpiece;
- and
- imparting a vibration of a frequency not lower than 100 Hz to said traveling wire electrode at each of two locations arranged respectively on the two opposite sides of said workpiece and in a direction transverse to the axis of said traveling wire electrode whereby the two vibrations are superimposed upon one another and result in a composite undulating oscillatory motion of said traveling wire electrode with more than two nodes and antinodes or loops of the motion along said axis in the path.
An apparatus for electroerosion-machining an electrically conductive workpiece with a wire electrode which is stretched to extend along a straight line path across the workpiece while being axially transported from a supply means to a collection means to axially travel through the workpiece continuously along said path, the apparatus comprising:
- means for relatively displacing said traveling wire electrode and said workpiece transversely to the axis of said traveling wire electrode while defining a machining gap therebetween;
- means for supplying a machining liquid to said gap;
- means for applying a series of electrical pulses between said workpiece and said electrode to generate machining discharges across the gap, thereby removing material from said workpiece;
- first means disposed at a first location on one side of said workpiece for imparting a first vibration of a frequency not lower than 100 Hz to said traveling wire electrode on said one side;
- and
- second vibrator means disposed at a second location on the other side of said workpiece for imparting a second vibration of a frequency not lower than 100 Hz to said traveling wire electrode on said other side,
- said first and second vibrator means being arranged to apply to said traveling wire electrode said two vibrations which are superimposed upon one another and result in a composite undulating oscillatory motion of said traveling wire electrode with more than two nodes and antinodes or loops of the motion along said axis in the path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.