In 2018, the mould-making department at Procter & Gamble optimised its portfolio to meet requirements for multi-cavity moulds that need small, high-accuracy geometries. In addition, the company wanted to continue its changeover from copper to graphite electrodes, which began in 2014. With the investment in OPS-Ingersoll’s Eagle G5 Precision die-sinking EDM machine, which is available in the UK from the Engineering Technology Group (ETG), Proctor & Gamble has fulfilled this task. Now, the company has numerous options for making the manufacturing processes more efficient and economical, while having the ability to tackle new challenges.

Prototyping and tool-making activities at Procter & Gamble focus on dry and wet shavers as well as manual and electronic toothbrushes. To meet high interchangeability and accuracy demands, the Kronberg plant in Germany was looking for a new die-sinking EDM machine.

“After a short benchmarking exercise, we realised that there was no machine on the market that was comparable to the Eagle G5 Precision,” states Jürgen Mohr, group head of innovative prototype and moulding technologies. “We’ve found that the quality characteristics of the G5 Precision have enabled us to meet our requirements for high precision in multi-cavity moulds and high-quality surfaces.”

With optimal process reliability and the fact that it is no longer necessary to intervene in the process to optimise the erosion technology, Proctor & Gamble can now manufacture parts with an accuracy of less than ±0.01 mm in a fully automated process. There are enough examples in Kronberg that speak for the use of EDM, including mould cores with a clamping length of 250 mm that tend to vibrate during milling. Where these parts used to be milled and partially eroded, they are now finished in a single EDM operation on the G5 Precision.
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