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Curved or Angled Surfaces
Hardened Materials
Materials Producing Gummy Chips
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No Hole Deburring
Prevents Broken Drills
Creates Deep Straight Holes |
CNC Programmable Machines
EDMed 1,800 .020” Holes |
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1. Drills Deep Holes
Drilling deep small holes with conventional drilling is often extremely difficult, and many times impossible. Small EDM hole drilling is often the only practical method for producing such holes.
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2. Drills on Curved or Angled Surfaces
When holes must be drilled on curved or angled surfaces, great difficulties arise with conventional drilling. Drills tend to walk off such surfaces. To prevent drills from walking, fixturing and guide bushings are used on these irregular surfaces to guide conventional drills. But in EDM drilling, the electrode never contacts the material being cut. This non-contact machining process eliminates the tool pressure when drilling on curved or angled surfaces.
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3. Drills Hardened Materials
Some materials are too hard to drill using conventional methods, i.e., hardened tool steel, difficult alloys, and carbide. But material hardness does not affect the EDM process. However, some materials, like carbide, cut slower, not because of hardness, but because of conductivity properties of carbide.
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4. Drills Materials That Produce Gummy Chips that Cling to Cutters
Materials such as soft aluminum and copper can produce chips that cling to cutters. EDM drilling easily machines such materials.
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5. No Hole Deburring
Deburring of holes from conventional drilling can take longer than drilling the holes. As in conventional EDMing, small hole EDM drilling creates no burrs. This burr-free drilling is especially important when difficult holes, such as turbine blades, require deburring.
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6. Prevents Broken Drills
As conventional drills enter or exit curved or angled surfaces, they tend to break if not carefully controlled. Small broken drills are also often extremely difficult to remove from the workpiece. To prevent breaking drills in conventional drilling, controlling torque conditions are critical. However, in EDM drilling the torque conditions do not exist since the electrode never contacts the workpiece.
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7. Creates Deep Straight Holes
Due to the non-contact process of EDM, the deep hole EDM drilling produces straight holes. In contrast, conventional deep hole drills tend to drift.
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8. CNC Programmable Machines
Reliable has programmable CNC small hole EDM machines. The plate shown had 1,800 .020” holes drilled into it
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