DFM Support and Custom Fixturing for Wire EDM Parts
If you need highly regulated medical or aerospace components, talk to United Centerless Grinding & Thread Rolling about our wire EDM services.
Our expert team uses wire EDM to cut and contour conductive materials to your exact specifications, achieving intricate tolerances within +/- 0.0002”, mirror-like surface finishes, and small corner radii.
To ensure truly superior quality, we employ two key steps when customers engage us for wire EDM services:
Custom fixturing to increase efficiency and accuracy
Design for Manufacturing (DFM) guidance to ensure successful wire EDM services
1. Custom Fixturing for Speed and Savings
At United CGTR, we emphasize proper fixturing when making parts with wire EDM. The right fixturing helps us reduce setup times by eliminating the need for manual part changes between cycles. It also allows us to achieve greater overall accuracy and consistency.
Our custom fixtures enable our wire EDM specialists to complete even multi-part orders quickly, whether you need 20 pieces or 200.
Custom wire EDM fixturing for automated multi-part orders
We develop fixtures that support multiple parts instead of just one. A custom fixture enables us to line up multiple parts for automated, back-to-back wire EDM production.
For example, if the specialist programs the wire EDM machine to run five pieces consecutively, they’ll use a fixture customized to hold five pieces. The machine will complete the first piece, cut the wire, move to the next piece, rethread the wire, and repeat the process—and it’s 100% automated.
If each piece takes five minutes to complete, that automated five-piece run frees the operator to work on another order for 25 minutes. As you know, reducing the human labor associated with a manufacturing job helps to reduce costs.
2. DFM Guidance for Close Collaboration
While we build many of our custom fixtures in-house at United CGTR, we also collaborate with our customers to help them make their own fixturing. But before we even reach the fixturing phase, collaboration is key to ensuring your parts are successful.
Collaboration begins with your RFQ for wire EDM services
When you submit your RFQ, we review the files and contact you for discussion if we have any questions or concerns. We’ll discuss your plans for machining the blank before it comes to us, and we’ll advise you on the best approach for preparing the blank for wire EDM services.
Making your fixturing
We also discuss how we’ll fixture the workpiece on the wire EDM machine, brainstorming the best way to automate repeatable loading and unloading. You may then choose to make your own fixture with our guidance, or we’ll make the fixture for you.
If you ask us to make your fixturing in-house, we typically use wire EDM services to make wire EDM fixtures. (Since United CGTR is not a CNC milling shop, we trust a vendor partner to make fixtures that require milling.)
Get Wire EDM Services and More from United CGTR
Keep in mind that there may also be an opportunity to have United CGTR manufacture your part from start to finish instead of only providing wire EDM services for a part you’ve already machined at your shop.
We offer a diverse array of capabilities and technologies under one roof, including precision centerless grinding, thread rolling, wire EDM, and Swiss precision machining. (We can even manage your entire supply chain!)
