Charmilles Technologies S.a.

Willi Zaugg

Jean-Claude Diot

Jean-Paul Briffod

G&eacute;rald Naville

Electrode tools for electroerosion (EDM) where a cavity or a relief is machined by hollowing out the part at great speed and in successive layers or slices by means of a rotating electrode tool of a simple shape which is independent of the cavity to be eroded, called &ldquo;EDM slices milling&rdquo;.

Rotative tool-electrodes of simple shapes for 3D electroerosive machining

An EDM device for machining by electro-erosion a three-dimensional cavity by compensating for tool-electrode wear, which device includes a mechanism for rotating a tool electrode whose diameter is small in comparison to the dimensions of the cavity being eroded, a numerical control unit of known type, which controls relative three-dimensional movement between the tool electrode and the workpiece, apparatus for controlling volumetric wear rate, and computational apparatus equipped for storing the volumic shape of the cavity to be eroded in the form of virtual fine parallel layers superimposed on one another, for simulating a tool path so that the tool tip sweeps groove by groove across said successive layers, and for transmitting a corresponding signal to the three-dimensional control unit, characterized by a simulator that is programmed to calculate prior to machining the longitudinal wear of the rotating tool or a value intended for additional axial feed of the tool electrode and continuously compensating for said longitudinal wear, this calculation being made from preexisting, known technological data and parameters characterizing the geometry of the electrodes, and designed to transmit to the three-dimensional control unit a corresponding signal continuously compensating for this wear.

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Echenevez, France

Willi Zaugg