Plunge electromachining
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsMichael Scott Lamphere, Roger Barrie Etherington, Bin Wei
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electromachining apparatus includes a mandrel for supporting a workpiece next to a cutter mounted on an arbor. The workpiece is powered as an anode and the cutter is powered as a cathode, and a coolant is circulated therebetween. The cutter is rotated and plunge twisted into the workpiece to form a twisted slot therein, with adjacent ones of such slots forming twisted blanks therebetween. The individual blanks may then be subsequently machined to final shape such as an airfoil configuration.
Claims30
An electromachining apparatus comprising:
- a mandrel for supporting a workpiece;
- a cutter mounted on an arbor;
- powering means for providing electrical power to said workpiece and cutter;
- cooling means for circulating a coolant between said cutter and workpiece;
- and
- driving means for plunging and rotating said cutter into said workpiece, and twisting said plunging cutter relative to said workpiece to electrically machine a twisting slot therein.
An electromachining apparatus comprising:
- a mandrel for supporting a workpiece;
- a cutter mounted on an arbor for rotation therewith;
- a power supply having a first lead electrically joined to said cutter and a second lead for being electrically joined to said workpiece;
- a coolant supply having a nozzle for discharging a coolant between said cutter and workpiece;
- and
- a carriage supporting said arbor and cutter, and configured for plunging said rotating cutter into said workpiece and twisting said plunging cutter relative to and rotating said workpiece to electrically machine a twisting slot therein.
An method of electromachining a workpiece comprising:
- rotating a cutter;
- electrically powering said workpiece and cutter;
- circulating a coolant therebetween;
- and
- plunging said rotating cutter into said workpiece and first twisting said plunging cutter relative thereto to electrically machine a twisting slot therein.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.