Scenic Tool & Stamping

Success Story:
Scenic Tool & Stamping
EDM I Milling I Laser Texturing I Tooling & Automation I Customer Service

Wire-Changing EDM Boosts Productivity in Micro
Tooling Production
As consumer products continue to shrink in size, stamping die
shops face the challenge of developing highly intricate tooling
for stamping the tiny components that make up miniature
merchandise. As a result, an increasing number of these
shops are incorporating high-precision wire EDMs, especially
those that provide automatic wire-changing (AWC) capability.
One shop finding microstamping tool machining success with
today’s advanced wire EDM technology and AWC capability is
Scenic Tool and Stamping, Inc. in Campobello, South Carolina.
This full service tool and die shop, established in 1995, handles
a wide range of job sizes; however, its real niche is providing
intricate micro stampings of electric contact connectors to the
automotive and electronics industries. In 2011, the company
produced slightly fewer than 1 billion electric contact connector
stampings for its various customers, with individual order
volumes ranging from 50 to millions of pieces.
Much of the connector stampings Scenic Tool and Stamping
produces are tiny, complex and stamped from very thin raw
material. For example, some stampings measure in the area
of 0.030” wide and 0.150” long with features as small as 0.012”
and overall dimensional tolerances that often must be held to
within +/- 0.0005”.
all that is required to accommodate a range of wire diameters
from 0.002” to 0.012”. The machine is always aware of wire
center to maintain exact part location and size once a wire
diameter change has occurred and cutting resumes.
“When we first looked at the CUT 2000, we were a bit skeptical
as to how well the twin-head wire changing would work,” said
Eric. “The small diameter wire we run is GF AgieCharmilles
zinc-coated steel core with high tensile strength, and the
machine’s wire changer quickly and smoothly goes from that
to standard larger diameter brass wire.” Additionally, AWC capability
is paired with the machine’s Dynamic Corner Control,
Wire Bending Control (for complex geometries) and Variocut, a
function that automatically optimizes machining parameters.
Scenic Tool and Stamping has progressed over the past 18
years to its present-day 30-employee, two-building operation,
with Mike Blackwell at the helm, and Eric Blackwell on the
floor with the GF AgieCharmilles CUT 2000. Since its beginnings,
Scenic Tool and Stamping has never really experienced
any slowdowns. Business has grown continually, even through
the challenging year of 2008. And going forward business is
expected to further increase because Scenic Tool and Stamping
has its sights set on expanding into the medical and aerospace
industries, and the shop’s EDM capabilities, along with
its extensive micro-stamping experience, will play a key role.
“Wire EDM is at the heart of our shop. We design tooling
according to the capabilities of that technology,” said Mike
Blackwell, president of Scenic Tool and Stamping. “With the
ability to cut parts using wire diameters down to 0.002”, we
are able to easily meet customer requirements for smaller
more precise micro stampings, and do so while also reducing
overall processing times for the tooling. But most importantly,
Wire EDM allows us to generate the extremely high-quality
surface finishes critical for micro stamping tooling. ”
Scenic Tool and Stamping relies on a GF AgieCharmilles
CUT 2000 wire EDM, with a new third-generation twin-head
Automatic Wire Changer, to easily switch between wires of
different sizes and materials, allowing optimization of both
roughing and finishing operations while also conserving the
use of high-end small-diameter coated wire. For one of many
applications at Scenic Tool and Stamping, the wire-changing
capability played a key role in reducing processing time for
carbide punches.
Previously, the carbide punches were cut using only 0.004”
diameter wire for both roughing and finishing the 1.750” thick
parts. Scenic now runs the rough pass much faster using
0.008” diameter wire, then the machine automatically changes
to the smaller diameter wire for the finish pass, allowing the
shop to cut extremely tight inside-corner radii.
According to Eric Blackwell, CNC and EDM manager at Scenic
Tool , the CUT 2000 automatically makes wire changes in less
than two minutes and has technology that allows it to know
the exact center location of its V-guides. The CUT 2000 uses
patented GF AgieCharmilles Universal Wire Guide technology.
Two stationary 3-point V-guides – an upper and lower – are

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Lincolnshire, IL, 60069
USA
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Email: info.gfms.us@georgfischer.com
Phone: 847-913-5300
© Machining Solutions, 2015
The technical data and illustrations are not binding.
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