Brass Coating Protects Carbide EDM Parts from Oxidation
Seibu’s EL coating, available from KGK International, protects carbide parts, resulting in longer tool life and more parts produced.
Seibu’s EL coating, available from KGK International, protects carbide parts, resulting in longer tool life and more parts produced. Seibu’s wire EDMs require a simple M code to be added to the CNC program in order to activate the coating process.
During wire EDM machining of carbide, the company explains that the cobalt will start to break down due to oxidation caused by the dielectric fluid, even while machining is occurring. If the cobalt is not protected after the final EDM skim pass, it is attacked by the oxygen ions. To reduce oxidation of the carbide tool, Seibu’s EL coating applies a very thin layer of brass wire onto the carbide during the final trim pass. This thin layer of brass protects the carbide’s cobalt from the oxygen ions located in the dielectric fluid.
Related Content
-
CNC Machine Shop Honored for Automation, Machine Monitoring
From cobots to machine monitoring, this Top Shop honoree shows that machining technology is about more than the machine tool.
-
Quick-Change Tool Heads Reduce Setup on Swiss-Type Turning Centers
This new quick-change tooling system enables shops to get more production from their Swiss turning centers through reduced tool setup time and matches the performance of a solid tool.
-
How to Successfully Adopt Five-Axis Machining
While there are many changes to adopt when moving to five-axis, they all compliment the overall goal of better parts through less operations.
