E EXPERIENCE 28 - GF AgieCharmilles US

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25 AGIE experience No <strong>28</strong> January 2007 ED wire cutting – the heart of tool manufacture Constant progress for over fifty years Mi-Me Minuterie Metalliche Meles S.p.A. was founded in 1950 and today has 105 employees on its payroll. The company offers a complete service all around punching and bending. At the head office in Presezzo, tools are developed, designed and manufactured in accordance with customers' drawings. Tools are designed and optimised with CAD- CAM systems of the latest generation. For high precision, in addition to traditional machining centres, the tool making department has ED machines of the Agie brand at its disposal which, in the course of the years, have developed more and more into a key technology in tool making. Since 2001, the production of high precision punched and bent parts has been carried out in the neighbouring town of Bonate Sopra. For this, Mi-Me has a stateof-the-art range of machines installed in an area of 10,000 m 2 , with high-speed presses from Bruderer and automatic punching and bending machines from Bihler, each of which is coupled to production management by a computer system. Mi-Me can thus organise its working cycles optimally and supply «just in time» to customers. This philosophy of «everything at the right time» can be traced back to tool making at Mi-Me. Tools are modular in construction and, thanks to ED wire cutting, the punches and also dies are manufactured to an exact fit, so that in the case of breakage or changes it is possible to react quickly. A typical example is a two-way progressive tool for which 40% of the total production time is taken up by ED machining, underlining the high standing of this machining technology. The starting point for the production of electrical contacts was the customer’s drawing of the article. In addition came the requirements, such as material, material thickness and quantity. Mi-Me then designed and manufactured a twoway progressive tool with 25 stations for punching, stamping and bending. In accordance with the thickness of the material to be punched, the tool was designed with a contour tolerance of ± 3 µm. Ra 0.3 µm on the punches and Ra 0.05 µm on the dies ensured optimal die clearance when punching.
26 AGIE experience No <strong>28</strong> January 2007 Mi-Me Minuterie Metalliche Meles S.p.A. ED wire cutting for high precision punches and dies When the tool has been designed and optimised with CAD/CAM systems, the individual punches and dies are derived from this and the cutting contours for them are prepared with PCam. The programs are transferred to the Agiecut Progress 2. With a few details about the workpiece and wire, «Teccut» makes proposals in accordance with profitability and precision. The cutting technology then selected is allotted to the workpiece. In the case of machining jobs with drop-out parts, «Usersequence» can be selected. This function allows cutting sequences to be decided in accordance with time criteria so that e.g. all the cuts are made at night and the separating cut for removing the dropout part is scheduled for the time of the operator's presence. With the «Graficheck» function, the operator obtains certainty for the whole machining job as he can present the workpiece three-dimensionally and simulate the cutting sequences. The «Agiesetup 3D» function, with which the workpiece position is plotted three-dimensionally, and any possible offset is taken into account by the control system. Agiecut Progress has eCut cutting technologies at its disposal which achieve surfaces of Ra 0.8 µm with one single precision cut. This reduces the trim cuts and the required roughness of Ra 0.3 µm on punches and Ra 0.5 µm on dies can be achieved more quickly. All the active parts of the two-way progressive die are PVD/TiCN coated in order to achieve a longer service life and to prevent any breaking off as far as possible. However, if necessary, the high fitting and repeating accuracy achieved through ED wire cutting, allows punches and dies to replaced quickly and without any finishing work. ED die sinking for complementary machining jobs If bending or stamping jobs have to be carried out on the finished part, ED die sinking is used at Mi-Me. For this, the electrode forms are derived from the CAD/CAM program for the tool design, the copper electrodes milled and the shaping inserts ED machined. The Agietron Spirit 2 is the ideal ED die-sinking machine for this, in order to achieve these three-dimensional cavities quickly and simply. The operator is guided through the program by self-explanatory symbols, automatic measuring cycles shorten the set-up time and an electrode magazine makes machining jobs possible at night, too. Arguments which have a name for Mi-Me in the case of ED wire cutting and die sinking: Agie. Setup of a workpiece in an Agiecut Evolution 2. «Agiejogger» allows all important control functions required. Part view of the EDM department at Mi-Me. Three Agiecut and two Agietron machines ensure high precision on the workpiece. The Agietron Spirit 2 is the ideal addition in blanking tool making. MiMe manufactures mould inserts for bending and forming stations with this, but drill holes for mountings are also made with this ED die-sinking machine. All the active parts, as well as the tool itself, too, are measured on the DEA measuring machine from Brown & Sharp at Mi-Me for the final check. With a contour tolerance of ± 3 µm and surface qualities of Ra 0.3 µm on punches as well as Ra 0.5 µm on dies, the two-way progressive die is designed both for a long service life and for high precision on the finished parts.
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Page 3 and 4: 2 AGIE experience No 28 January 200
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E EXPERIENCE 28 - GF AgieCharmilles US

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