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Procedia CIRP 42 (2016) 623 – 626

18th CIRP Conference on Electro Physical and Chemical Machining (ISEM XVIII)

The latest technology of Wire-cut EDM

Yushi TAKAYAMAa,*, Yushinori MAKINOa, Yan NIUa,*, Hiroyuki UCHIDAa
a
FANUC CORPORATION, Oshino-mura, Yamanashi 401-0597, Japan

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +81-555-84-5555, fax: +81-555-84-5880.

In recent years, requirements of “High value-added” has increased to the wire-cut EDM under the situation of the high
precision requirement of industrial products or the high labor cost. For corresponding to them, focusing on “Improvement of
performance being helpful for the practical cutting in factories”, we have developed advanced cutting technologies, various
effective functions and a management tool for productions and quality data on our wire-cut EDM, ROBOCUT. One of the latest
cutting technologies is “High precision cutting for thick work-pieces”, developed for resin molding die cutting. It greatly
improves the straightness of thick work-pieces by our optimum discharge control. And we have developed “Automatic wire
feeding function at the wire break point in taper cutting” that can thread the wire automatically when the wire breaks in a taper
cutting of a press die with relief angles. It contributes to unmanned machining. The rotary table for ROBOCUT named
“ROBOCUT CCR” expands the range of applications, so that various applications such as cutting tools, medical parts, etc, are
available. The management tool for productions and quality data named “ROBOCUT-LINKi” can observe machine status in real
time, and support the productions quality control, so that it can contribute to decrease the machine downtime. For factory
automations, we have also promoted robotaization of ROBOCUT aggressively, and actually we have seen many ROBOCUT
systems combined with FANUC robots in Europe and USA. We correspond to the needs of markets, and continue to develop
new technologies to contribute to the worldwide manufacturing industry. Herein, we introduce the latest technologies of
ROBOCUT.
© 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of 18th CIRP Conference on Electro Physical and Chemical Machining (ISEM
Peer-review
XVIII). under responsibility of the organizing committee of 18th CIRP Conference on Electro Physical and Chemical Machining
(ISEM XVIII)
Keywords:Wire EDM, Automatic wire feeding, Rotary table,ROBOCUT, CCR, LINKi

1. Introduction

In recent years, requirements of “High value-added” has

increased to the wire-cut EDM under the situation of the high
precision requirement of industrial products or the high labor
cost. For corresponding to them, we have developed various
functions, focusing on “Improvement of performance being
helpful for the practical cutting in factories”, on our wire-cut
EDM, ROBOCUT as shown in Fig.1
We have developed a management tool for productions and
quality data to improve the rate of operation. And we also
promote to suggest the automation by robot to contribute to
the productivity.
ROBOCUT is useful for many applications of wire-cut
electric discharge cutting, by using superior technologies of
FANUC CNC, servo and robot greatly. Fig. 1. FANUC ROBOCUT D-CiA series

2212-8271 © 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of 18th CIRP Conference on Electro Physical and Chemical Machining (ISEM XVIII)
doi:10.1016/j.procir.2016.02.259
624 Yushi Takayama et al. / Procedia CIRP 42 (2016) 623 – 626

Herein we report the latest technologies of ROBOCUT as 2.2. Automatic wire feeding function at the wire break point
follows. in taper cutting

(1) Improvement of performance and functions being helpful On the wire-cut EDM, the wire feeding is necessary before
for the practical cutting, and various effective functions the cutting start or the restart. The twin servo wire feeding
- High precision cutting for thick work-pieces system using FANUC digital servo motors can perform the
- Automatic wire feeding function at the wire break point automatic wire feeding as shown in Fig.3.1)  The superior
in taper cutting servo technology of FANUC exactly adjusts the wire tension
- Rotary table ROBOCUT CCR for stabilizing to cut the wire with the optimum torque control.
(2) Improvement of the rate of operation by a management As the result, it makes high speed and outstanding success
tool for productions and quality data rate of the automatic wire feeding.
(3) Automation by robot
Servo motor
CNC for brake
SERVO
2. Improvement of performance being helpful for the
practical cutting, and various functions
Servo motor
Firstly, we report the latest cutting technologies and for feeding
various effective functions focusing on “Improvement of
performance being helpful for the practical cutting in
factories”. Fig. 3. Twin servo wire feeding system

2.1. High precision cutting for thick work-pieces In case of the cutting restart after a wire break, there are
two ways to thread the wire. One is moving back to the start
Resin products are used in wide range fields, such as point to thread the wire and the other is threading the wire at
automobiles, medical equipments, machinery parts, office the wire break point. To reduce the recovery time, the
supplies, commodities, etc. And many mold dies are used for automatic wire feeding at the wire break point is more
manufacturing these products. efficient than doing at the start point.
Thick work-pieces are used for mold dies in many cases. In case of the automatic wire feeding at the wire break
When these thick work-pieces are cut by a wire-cut EDM, the point, the straightness of the wire itself is very important.
distance between the upper and lower guide is so wide that the Many technologies are devised for it up to now. By
wire is bent so easily. This situation sometimes makes an improvement of wire straightness, the rate of the wire
unstable discharge and worse straightness of the work-piece. threading of thick work-pieces or complicated shape work-
Therefore, we have developed an optimum control of the pieces is improved.2)
discharge energy with paying attention to the wire bending. It However, if the work-piece has relief angles such as press
can significantly reduce the wire bending and effectively dies, as shown in Fig.4 (a), during the machine tries to thread
improve the straightness of thick work-pieces. the wire at the wire break point, the wire touches to the
The straightness of 300mm SKD11 work-piece is achieved surface of the work-piece, and the wire feeding fails. By this
to 7ȝm accuracy by 3 times cutting on ROBOCUT, as shown reason, if the wire breaks during a taper cutting, it must move
in Fig.2. back to the start point to thread the wire, not at the wire break
point, in the conventional way.
9.000 Therefore we have developed “Automatic wire feeding
function at the wire break point in taper cutting”. This
㻟㻜㻜
function threads the wire with adjusting the upper guide
㻞㻡㻜 position to pass the wire into the cutting groove on
ROBOCUT, as shown in Fig.4 (b). It enables the wire feeding
㻞㻜㻜 8.993 at a cutting groove with the relief angle less than 5°, and it
㻝㻡㻜 Material SKD11
contributes to improve the productivity.
upper nozzel wire
Thickness 300mm
㻝㻜㻜
Cutting times 3 times
㻡㻜 Straightness 7ȝm
9.000
㻜
work-piece
upper guide
Fig. 2. High precision cutting sample of a thick work-piece ×
Cutting groove
(a) Conventional (b) Automatic wire feeding
automatic wire feeding in taper cutting
Fig. 4. Automatic wire feeding in taper cutting
 Yushi Takayama et al. / Procedia CIRP 42 (2016) 623 – 626 625

2.3. ROBOCUT CCR For corresponding to high quality requirements from

manufacturing fields, “Quality control function” which is the
In recent years, the wire-cut EDM is used in various latest function of ROBOCUT LINKi, automatically records
cutting fields by combining with a rotary table, and the range the machining status3), and checks the quality of the
of application is significantly expanded. production by comparing to the standard data of cutting status.
For example, the setup time of a jig cutting or an electrode It is possible to keep high quality of products with this
cutting which has two cutting processes, can be reduced and function.
the productivity can be improved by using a rotary table as Moreover, “Quality control function” also shows alarm
index. In case of a rotary tool cutting or a screw part cutting, records or wire break positions in machining visually on PC.
the simultaneous control among machine axes and rotary axis It contributes to investigate the cause of machining defects.
makes it possible to cut the complicated shape in high
precision.
We have developed a lightweight, compact and high 4. Automation by robot
precision rotary table for ROBOCUT, named “ROBOCUT
CCR”. The full-closed feedback loop system using a FANUC Under the situation of the raising labor cost or for the
servo motor and a rotary encoder is applied to ROBOCUT quality management, the factory automation expands rapidly.
CCR. It makes high positioning accuracy and repeatability. To meet the market needs, we promote to make robotaization
ROBOCUT CCR has a sensor to detect the water leakage. of ROBOCUT by FANUC Robots aggressively and there are
If the water leakage occurs, the sensor works immediately, actually many robot system applications in Europe and USA.
and it sets user’s mind at rest to use ROBOCUT CCR. Recently, it is possible to do additional jobs for wire-cut
EDM with robots by using vision function named iRVision
that is a FANUC’s visual sensor for robots.
Fig.7 is a Robot system sample of ROBOCUT doing the
automatic work-pieces changing and cleaning with a robot
and an iRVision. The automation by robots makes long time
unmanned machining.
FANUC ROBOCUT
FANUC ROBOT

Work-piece
˄Rotary tool˅

Fig. 5. ROBOCUT CCR and application of tool cutting

3. ROBOCUT-LINKi
FANUC

To improve the productivity in a factory, we have

developed “ROBOCUT-LINKi”, a management tool for
productions and quality data.
This PC software can observe the machine status of
iRVision
ROBOCUT in real time, and send an E-mail to cellular
phones, so users can instantly grasp the production status Fig. 7. Robot system of ROBOCUT
remotely as shown in Fig.6. By this function, the machine
downtime decreases and the rate of operation can be improved. 5. Conclusions
It makes high productivity.
We have developed various functions to meet the market
12/ Cellular phone requirements of “High value-added”.
(1) Improvement of performance and functions being helpful
for the practical cutting, and various effective functions
- High precision cutting for thick work-pieces
The optimum discharge control for thick work-pieces
has been developed for resin molding die cutting. It
improves the straightness of thick work-pieces greatly
in comparison with the conventional method.
- Automatic wire feeding function at the wire break point
in taper cutting
It can thread the wire automatically when the wire
ROBOCUT-LINKi
ROBOCUT˄Max. 32units˅ breaks in a taper cutting with relief angles. It contributes
to unmanned machining of press die cuttings.
Fig. 6. ROBOCUT-LINKi - Rotary table ROBOCUT CCR
626 Yushi Takayama et al. / Procedia CIRP 42 (2016) 623 – 626

The rotary table for ROBOCUT named ROBOCUT

CCR expands the range of applications, so that various We are continuously going to supply the wire-cut EDM
applications such as cutting tools, medical parts, etc, are with “High cutting performance”, “High sustainability” and
available. “Ease of use”.
(2) Improvement of the rate of operation by a management
tool for productions and quality data References
The management tool for productions and quality data
named ROBOCUT-LINKi can observe machine status in [1] Patent, Wire-cut electric discharge machine having wire tension control
real time, and support the production quality check, so function,No.4168076(JP2007.3.8);No.7800010(US2008.2.11);No.196731
1(EP 2008.3.5);No.ZL200810081596.7(CN2008.3.7)
that it can contribute to decrease the machine downtime. [2] Higeaki Kita, New Technologies of Mitsubishi Large-size Wire Electrical
(3) Automation by robot Discharge machine, Die and Mould technology. NIKKAN KOGYO
For factory automations, we promote to make SHIMBUN, LTD 2014 Vil.29 No.12;56(in Japanese).
robotaization of ROBOCUT by FANUC Robots [3] Patent, Data collection system for electric discharge machines,
aggressively. The unmanned machining with high value- No.5642748 (Japan 2014.11.7)
added by robots and iR Vision can be expected.