To be competitive in the marketplace manufacturers must continuously identify opportunities to improve efficiency and increase capacity while maintaining the highest level of quality. Makino, the industry leader in low wire consumption technologies, is introducing a new Wire EDM machine – U6 H.E.A.T. Extreme – that delivers these requirements with increased machining rates while maintaining traditional wire consumption.
The U6 H.E.A.T. Extreme features the industry-first 0.016” coated wire technology that increases rough machining rates up to 300% compared to traditional 0.010” brass wire while maintaining comparable wire consumption rates of 0.6 ~ 0.7 lbs./hour. As a result, the new machine is able to significantly improve rough machining speed without increasing manufacturing costs. The U6 H.E.A.T Extreme machine utilizes a new 0.016” Topas H.E.A.T. coated wire from Bedra, and settings for 2-Pass Machining have been developed to provide optimal productivity.
The U6 H.E.A.T. Extreme also features Makino’s HyperDrive Extreme wire control system to improve machine speed and performance. The industry-leading system uses an AC motor tensioning system that expands the range and stability of wire tension creating a reliable threading system for the 0.016” wire. The Wire Threading system provides both Jet and Jet-less threading modes and can rethread the wire in the gap at a break point when operating with traditional wire sizes. The machine also contains a robust machining conditions library that has been developed to provide an optimal mix of Speed, Accuracy, Surface Finish, and Low Wire Consumption for both sealed and poor flush applications. It utilizes dual digital flushing pumps that harness additional raw horse power to deliver higher pressure and volume of flushing to reduce rough-cut machining cycle time. Additionally, to reduce maintenance intervals and costs the machine features long-life energizers, which dramatically extends the service life of this consumable service item. To improve ease of use and productivity, the U6 H.E.A.T. Extreme has the intuitive and revolutionary Hyper-i control that delivers a common interface and contains many helpful advanced functions to support every operator need. The machine also comes standard with the HyperConnect IIoT network connectivity function for remote machine monitoring and interconnectivity of all manufacturing information and is equipped with dual 24” Hyper-i screens that allow the operator to display and access any data or program directly at the machine.
The U6 H.E.A.T. Extreme Wire EDM will be on display at the Makino booth #1236 at EASTEC in West Springfield, Massachusetts, May 14-16. The demonstration will feature both the new machine and ATHENA, Makino’s voice-activated technology that helps operators by performing functions such as machine set up, running the machine, maintain or machine repair and monitoring.
