What’s the Difference Between High-speed WEDM, Medium-speed WEDM and Low-speed WEDM?

In China, people usually divide wire EDM into 3 types: low-speed wire EDM (LS-WEDM), fast-speed wire EDM (HS-WEDM) and medium-speed EDM (MS-WEDM).

 

What’s the Low Speed Wire cut EDM?

 

• The electrode wire of the low-speed wire cutting machine uses copper wire as the tool electrode, and the electrode is continuously moved to perform pulse spark discharge ablation and cutting of the workpiece. Walk slowly, unlike CNC turning, which is suitable for processing Dowel Pins, Low speed wire cut is more suitable for irregular workpieces that require right-angle cutting.

 

• Since the Low speed wire cut machine adopts the method of continuous wire feeding of the wire electrode, that is, the wire electrode completes the processing during the movement, so even if the wire electrode is worn, it can be continuously supplemented, which can improve the processing accuracy of the part. The surface roughness of the work piece processed by the slow-feed wire cutting machine can usually reach Ra = 0.8 μm and above, and the roundness error, straight line error and dimensional error of the slow-feed wire cutting machine are much better than those of the fast-feed wire cutting machine. For high-precision parts, Low speed wire cut machines are widely used. In addition to early small and medium-sized enterprises, it is also very common in processing plants of large enterprises such as aviation, automotive, and medical.

 

• Slow-walking machine tools usually use deionized water as the dielectric solution, but kerosene may also be used in special cases.

What’s the Fast-speed Wire cut EDM?

 

• Fast speed wire cut machine is also called high-speed reciprocating wire machine. It usually uses molybdenum wire or tungsten molybdenum alloy as electrode wire, and usually uses water-soluble wire cutting liquid as working fluid. Its processing speed is fast, but the processing accuracy is far less than that of slow wire-feeding machine tools. Usually only one pass is processed, which is suitable for rough machining.

 

• Both fast wire-feeding machine tools and medium wire-feeding machine tools are unique models in China, while medium-speed wire-feeding machine tools are continuously improved and developed on the basis of fast wire-feeding machines, and also belong to the category of reciprocating high-speed wire-cut EDM machines. It realizes multiple cutting functions on high-speed reciprocating EDM wire cutting machines, commonly known as medium wire cutting. Special attention should be paid here, the so-called middle wire cutting does not mean that the wire cutting speed is between high and low speeds, but a composite wire cutting machine, that is, the principle of wire cutting is to use a high speed of 8-12m/s during rough machining and low speed 1-3m/s wire travel for finish machining.

Below table may help you to be more clear about their difference.