Hello from Idaho. I have been on travel for the last 2+ weeks and
have thus not taken the time to reply to the thread on EDM electrodes
yet. I agree with the comments that state that all of the EDM
electrode methods from RP that are currently available leave a lot
to be desired. I have been working on the problem for 5 years now and
I am happy to announce that there will soon issue a patent that deals
with this problem. DTM and a number of other companies are also
working with me to bring this to market.
I have developed techniques that allow EDM electrodes to be created from
RP in the material system Zyrkon. It is a composite material made up of
zirconium diboride and copper. It can be made similarly to DTM's current
RapidTool process and similar processes (such as Keltool, ProMetal, etc.).
DTM and a number of other companies are supporting the research and if
any other companies are interested in this and/or similar work on direct
production of "production" tooling using RP, we are always looking for
more partners in the Rapid Manufacturing Center (of which I am director).
Feel free to contact me for more information.
Sincerely,
Dr. Brent Stucker, Director
Rapid Manufacturing Center
University of Rhode Island
Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Engr.
Kingston, RI 02881
(401)874-5187
fax: 874-5540
stucker@egr.uri.edu
> Thanx to all who replied to my queries about RP EDM electrodes. Many of
> the suggestions were to use metal spraying on the epoxy/ABS part. I am
> now exporing this possibility. Before I start physical trials, I need a
> ball park figure for the coating thickness for the electrode to
> withstand spark erosion. One try already ended in failure, when the coat
> eroded off before the cavity was completed!
>
> Regards,
>
> Peter Martin
> Anna University-FRG Center for CAD/CAM
> Chennai, India
>
>
> >From tusharm@idc.iitb.ernet.in Sun Jan 3 20:47:25 1999
> >Received: (qmail 22646 invoked from network); 4 Jan 1999 04:55:44 -0000
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> > by mailhost.iitb.ac.in with SMTP; 4 Jan 1999 04:55:44 -0000
> >Received: from localhost (tusharm@localhost)
> > by pragati.idc.iitb.ernet.in (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id KAA05525
> > for <proj_omega@hotmail.com>; Mon, 4 Jan 1999 10:13:21 +0530 (IST)
> >Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1999 10:13:21 +0530 (IST)
> >From: "Mr. Tushar R. Mahale" <tusharm@idc.iitb.ernet.in>
> >To: Peter Martin <proj_omega@hotmail.com>
> >Subject: Re: need help with rapid tooling
> >In-Reply-To: <199812290444.UAA09934@law-f92.hotmail.com>
> >Message-ID:
> <Pine.GSO.3.96.990104101127.5505A-100000@pragati.idc.iitb.ernet.in>
> >MIME-Version: 1.0
> >Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
> >
> >Try Epoxy/Spray metal tooling. Let me know if u require any help
> >
> >Regards
> >Tushar
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >Tushar Mahale
> >Senior Research Engineer
> >Rapid Prototyping Cell
> >Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay
> >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >On Mon, 28 Dec 1998, Peter Martin wrote:
> >
> >> dear rp-ml'rs,
> >> season's greetings and happy new year to everybody. i'm an
> >> engineering student in india and i have a small problem regarding
> Rapid
> >> Tolling.
> >> i have been asked to standardize a
> >> method to produce press tools using RP/RT techniques. so far, the
> tools
> >> were produce by generative machining of a graphite electrode, which
> was
> >> then utilized for EDM machining of the punch and die set.
> >> i'm trying to further reduce the lead time by using RP/RT. a
> Stratasys
> >> FDM 2000 is available to me. what would be the best method of
> tolling?
> >> the considerations are tool-life of the electrode,the surface quality
> of
> >> the part and obviously the accuracy of the final part.
> >> Can anyone suggest any solutions? cost-effective ones would be
> lovely!
> >> we are on a most miserly, Scrooge-like budget.
> >>
> >> Peter Martin
> >> Anna University, Chennai
> >> South India
> >> AU-FRG Center For Cad/Cam
> >>
> >> ______________________________________________________
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> >>
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> >>
> >
> >
>
>
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