The Main Advantages of Graphite Electrodes
Graphite electrodes are mainly made of petroleum coke and needle coke as raw materials and coal tar pitch as binder. They are made by calcining, batching, kneading, pressing, roasting, graphitization and machining. They are released in the form of electric arcs in an electric arc furnace. The conductors that heat and melt the charge by electric energy can be divided into ordinary power, high power and ultra-high power according to their quality indicators.
1. Graphite electrodes can make complex mold shapes
The increasing complexity of mold geometries and the diversification of product applications have led to higher and higher requirements for the discharge accuracy of spark machines. The advantages of graphite electrodes are that the processing is easier, the removal rate of electrical discharge machining is high, and the loss of graphite is small.
Therefore, some Qunji spark machine customers abandoned copper electrodes and switched to graphite electrodes.
In addition, some electrodes with special shapes cannot be made of copper, but graphite is easier to form, and copper electrodes are heavier and not suitable for processing large electrodes.
2. Graphite electrodes are easier to process, and the processing speed is significantly faster than copper electrodes
For example, the processing speed of graphite is 2 to 3 times faster than that of other metals, and no additional manual processing is required, while copper electrodes require manual grinding.
Similarly, if a high-speed graphite machining center is used to make electrodes, it will be faster and more efficient, and there will be no dust problems. In these machining processes, choosing tools and graphite with the appropriate hardness can reduce tool wear and copper breakage.
If the milling time of carbon graphite electrode and copper electrode is compared in detail, graphite is 67% faster than copper electrode. In general EDM, the machining of graphite electrode is 58% faster than that of copper electrode.
As a result, processing time is greatly reduced, and manufacturing costs are also reduced.
3. The design of graphite electrode is different from that of traditional copper electrode
Many mold factories usually have different allowances for roughing and finishing of copper electrodes, while graphite electrodes use almost the same allowance, which reduces the number of CAD/CAM and machining times. For this reason alone, it is enough to greatly improve the accuracy of the mold cavity.
Of course, after the mold factory switches from copper electrodes to graphite electrodes, it should be clear how to use graphite materials and other related factors.
Today, some customers of Qunji spark machine use graphite electrode EDM, which eliminates the process of mold cavity polishing and chemical polishing, but still can achieve the desired surface finish. It is impossible to make such a workpiece with copper electrodes without adding time and polishing steps.
In addition, graphite is divided into different grades. Only by downloading and using the appropriate grades of graphite and EDM parameters in a specific application can achieve the ideal processing effect. If the operator uses the same parameters as the copper electrode on the spark machine using the graphite electrode, then the result is sure to be disappointing.
If the material of the electrode is to be strictly controlled, the graphite electrode can be set in a non-loss state (loss less than 1%) during rough machining, but the copper electrode is not used.
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