edm
Denso Manufacturing UK makes air conditioning and engine cooling systems and components
for both original equipment and aftermarket customers within the automotive industry. Five
EDM machines within the toolroom ensure that its range of injection mould and stamping tools
is replenished, avoiding interruption to any supplies to customers.
Breath of fresh air
DENSO Corporation is a leading global
supplier of advanced automotive technology,
systems and components, and is
headquartered in Kariya, Aichi prefecture,
Japan.
Many of the components produced at
Telford are small plastic parts that come off
injection mould tools, or thin sheet metal
parts generated by stamping tools. For this
reason the Telford facility houses a
significant toolroom furnished with high
specification machine tools. The five Sodick
EDMs include an A85, which arrived in 1990
and is still going strong today. In fact, the
machine hardly looks out of place alongside
the latest arrival, a Sodick AQ537L linear
motor wire EDM. ‘We have updated the
software on the A85, but other than that it’s
the same machine that arrived 15 years ago,’
says Graham Firmstone, CADCAM Engineer.
‘Its reliability is one of the principal reasons
we have remained with Sodi-Tech for such an
extensive period.’
Denso’s customer portfolio includes most
of the large automotive OEMs operating in
the UK and Europe. With tools playing such
an integral part in production at the Telford
site, toolroom machine reliability is
paramount to the success of both supplier and
customer.
Maintaining a world lead
‘The production department works to a JIT
system, so if a tool goes down we could
potentially be talking about stopping a
production line at one of our automotive
customers’ says Firmstone. ‘Over the years we
have come to rely on our Sodick EDMs to a
very great extent and the service engineers at
Sodi-Tech always provide an excellent
response.’
Many tooling parts manufactured are oneoffs
but some components are repeated. To
this end, batch sizes up to 50-off are known
to pass through the facility’s EDM section.
One factor that is always consistent,
however, is the requirement for high
quality, precision parts. Micron-level
tolerances are maintained using the Sodick
THE introduction of lean, cellular production techniques at the Corin Group has transformed
individual component machining times, as well as overall lead times for this world-leading
manufacturer of medical implants and instrumentation; and by investing in two Fanuc Alpha wire
EDM, also from 600 Centre, the company has saved a substantial annual outlay by bringing in-house
previously sub-contracted wire erosion tasks.
The two Fanuc Robocut Alpha-OiC wire EDMs are used in the production of a diverse range of
instruments, comprising around 30 different instrumentation sets, to match the different sizes of hip
replacements produced. Once installed, the machines immediately enabled Corin to eliminate both the high weekly cost of around £1,000 of wire EDM
outsourcing and the vagaries of lead time, for example, that can arise from such supplier-dependency.
Employing linear drive technology for high-precision machining, and the ability to cut precisely with ultra-fine 0.05mm wire, the machine fully integrates
with nano-interpolation techniques giving 10 nanometre absolute positioning and enables surface finishes to be created within 0.04µm. Nano interpolation
also has the effect to smooth the action of the axis drives and eliminates any accumulation of axial movement or error. As a result, exact position calculations
are made at 0.001mm from program command that are 100 times greater than a normal wire EDM. Like every machine installed on the shopfloor, the Fanucs
receive offline-created programs via a DNC network. www.600centre.co.uk
52 MWP may 2008
EDMs on materials that include D2 and P20
tool steels, as well as carbide. ‘No one can
question the precision or repeatability of
these machines’ continues Firmstone. ‘They
work hard - three rotational shifts Monday-
Friday with optional overtime at the
weekends - but they don’t miss a beat. Scrap
is almost unheard of.’
Helping the new AQ537L hit its output
targets is a Sodick K1C small hole EDM.
However, this not only produces pre-start
holes for the wire EDM, it is also used in the
manufacture of mould tool components that
require oil or air cooling holes.
As well as mould tools for plastic air
conditioning unit parts, the toolroom also
handles the company’s requirement for
stamping tools. These tools produce parts for
automotive assemblies such as radiators,
condensers and heater cores. Some of the
stamping tools are complex, progressive and
fairly intricate, and again are all produced
using Sodick EDM technology. ‘Our
investment in the machines supplied by Sodi-
Tech has played an enormous part in helping
the company achieve its objective of
delivering high quality, cost-efficient
components, on-time,’ concludes Graham
Firmstone.
www.sodi-techedm.co.uk
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