Materials engineering group Wall Colmonoy has upgraded its EDM machining capacity with an extra-large 800 by 600mm bed Sodick ALC800G Premium machine.
The company manufactures precision castings and components as well as its Colmonoy® surfacing and Nicrobraz® brazing products.
As a company that manufactures components for quality critical industries such as the aerospace, automotive, oil & gas, mining and energy sectors; precision, repeatability and cut quality are a necessity for the Michigan-based company with European headquarters in Pontardawe, South Wales.
With two ageing EDM machines that both had table sizes of around 300 by 400mm, any large work outside this dimensional envelope either had to be subcontracted out or turned away. Also, like any manufacturer, Wall Colmonoy had deadlines and capacity challenges – it needed a more productive solution that could reliably re-thread wire, run unmanned and improve cutting times. The third challenge was overcoming poor precision levels. With its existing EDM machines over 10 years old, Wall Colmonoy needed precision levels to tolerances within +/-5 microns with impeccable levels of repeatability, which the Sodick machine could provide.
Wall Colmonoy Process Engineer Kevin O’Connor said: “Our existing machines were ageing, and the programming side of manufacturing became very dated. We were also facing increasing maintenance costs and machine downtime.”
“As we produce our specialist alloys, we needed to know if they had a machine capable of cutting our materials. So, we took samples of our alloys to Sodick for them to prove that the machines could essentially do ‘exactly what they say on the tin’.”
Business Development Manager at Sodi-Tech, Mr Tony Berry said: “Wall Colmonoy needed a machine with a capacity large enough to accept their ever-increasing diversity of parts in both dimensions and complexity. The existing machines were too small and the Sodick ALC800G Premium wire EDM machine has a worktable of 800 by 600mm, more than double the bed size of existing machines. By purchasing the Sodick ALC800G Premium wire EDM machine, Wall Colmonoy can manage larger parts, eliminating the need to subcontract work to external sources or alternately turn work away. This will undoubtedly see the company win more business in the future.”
“The new ALC800G Premium has replaced one of the previous EDM machines and it is more productive than the two previous machines combined. From a programming and operational perspective, Wall Colmonoy can now process up to four different parts simultaneously in a single set-up – and even multiples of those parts.”
He added: “They have now had the machine for almost a year and it has performed very well. I think Wall Colmonoy are now ready to progress. As part of the free packages that we provide, we can offer advanced training that incorporates things like angle cutting, cutting compound angles, machining unusual shapes and moving on to the machining of specialist alloys, which is exactly what they do here at Wall Colmonoy.”
Aaron Patton, EDM machinist at Wall Colmonoy added: “When we took delivery of the machine there was quite a steep learning curve, but now we are running the machine confidently, the benefits are impressive. There is still an advanced course that we can undertake to further enhance our capabilities as well as maximise what we can get out of the machine.”
Summing up Kevin O’Connor said: “The introduction of the Sodick ALC800G Premium machine means that we can wire EDM more complex parts than we were capable of before. This will benefit our company financially as we move forward. It was undoubtedly the correct machine to purchase. Technically, it can achieve everything we need it to do. We have had excellent backup from Sodi-Tech – if we ever need anything from them, they are at the end of the phone to support us.”
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