Wire EDM Auto Feeding Retry Control by Route Difficulty

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional wire electrical discharge machines fail to differentiate between sections of varying difficulty in the wire electrode's traveling route, leading to premature cessation of auto wire feeding even if the wire successfully passes through more challenging sections after multiple attempts, resulting in reduced success rates and efficiency.

Innovation Solution

A wire electrical discharge machine that divides the wire electrode's traveling route into multiple sections, using a control device to detect failures and evaluate the difficulty of each section, allowing for targeted retry decisions based on failure counts and difficulty levels, thereby optimizing the auto wire feeding process.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the machine counts failures uniformly across all sections of the traveling route, then the control logic is simple, but the success rate of wire feeding decreases because failures in low-difficulty sections are treated the same as failures in high-difficulty sections

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesuccess rate of wire feedingVSAvoidcontrol logic complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The traveling route is divided into multiple sections with different difficulty levels. The control device identifies which section the wire electrode is in when a failure occurs and counts failures separately for each section. This segmentation allows the system to apply different evaluation criteria to different sections, preventing premature termination of auto wire feeding when failures occur in low-difficulty sections after successful passage through high-difficulty sections.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

2Productivity

If the machine stops auto wire feeding when the failure count reaches the upper limit, then the machine operation is simplified, but the working efficiency decreases because the wire electrode is wound back to the initial position even when it has passed through difficult sections

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveworking efficiency of machiningVSAvoidmachine operation simplicity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The control device segments the traveling route into multiple sections and tracks the wire electrode's position. When a failure occurs, the system determines whether the wire has passed through high-difficulty sections before the failure point. If so, the failure count threshold is adjusted or the wire is allowed to continue, preventing unnecessary winding back and improving working efficiency.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The control device continuously monitors the wire electrode's position and failure occurrences, using this feedback to dynamically adjust the auto wire feeding process. When the wire passes through high-difficulty sections successfully, the system receives feedback that allows it to be more tolerant of subsequent failures in low-difficulty sections, preventing premature termination and improving productivity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

Data Source

PatentEP3290141B1Wire electrical discharge machine
Publication Date: 2021.06.16 FANUC LTD
  • EP3290141B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3290141B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3290141B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

A wire electrical discharge machine (10) includes: a travelling route (C) formed of multiple divisional regions (A), through which a wire electrode (12) is fed by an auto wire feeding mechanism (14); and a memory (M) storing failure evaluation reference data (D1) on the auto wire feeding for every divisional region (A). The wire electrical discharge machine (10) detects failure of the auto wire feeding and locate the tip position of the wire electrode (12) at the time of failure and causes a controller (36) to determine whether to perform or stop retry of the auto wire feeding based on the located tip position and the failure evaluation reference data (D1) for every divisional region (A).