Many will recall college and university machine shops of old – equipped at best with a turret mill and centre lathe. However, today they are much more advanced and feature the latest manufacturing technologies. The University of Wolverhampton (Telford Innovation Campus) is one of the leading protagonists with 3D metal printing machines supported by EDM technology from Warwick Machine Tools.

“Once a printed metal part has been generated, it has to be removed from the base plate used in the machine,” explains principal technician for innovative product development Iain Lyall. “To efficiently achieve this, we have recently invested in an Excetek CNC wire EDM machine that meets our needs.”
The new Excetek V650 has axis travels of 650 mm in X, 400 mm in Y and 350 mm in Z, accommodating workpieces up to 1000 x 700 x 345 mm and weighing up to 800 kg. With U- and V-axis travels of 160 mm, and ±33° maximum taper capability, the V650G also has a positioning system of 0.0001 mm resolution. Featuring an NC controller and automatic wire re-threading at the point of break, the new machine supports unmanned overnight operations.
As a result, an older wire cut EDM has been replaced that never really delivered, as Lyall explains: “We struggled with the old machine; the unused powder from the additive process would drop down inside and cause havoc with the wire cut path. We spent a lot of time finding this machine and it took a while to get the right settings. Now, we run all the EOS 3D printers and the Excetek machine overnight as they are set-up quickly and easily during the day.”
For further information
www.warwickmachinetools.com