With the increasing complexity of die geometry and the diversification of product application, the discharge accuracy of spark machine is required to be higher and higher. The advantages of graphite electrode are easy to process, high removal rate of EDM and small graphite loss. Therefore, some customers of group based spark machine abandon copper electrode and use graphite electrode instead. In addition, some electrodes with special shape can not be made of copper, but graphite is easier to form, and copper electrode is heavier, which is not suitable for machining large electrode. All these factors lead to the application of graphite electrode in some group based spark machine customers.
Graphite Electrode is easy to process, and the processing speed is faster than copper electrode. For example, when using milling technology to process graphite, its processing speed is 2-3 times faster than that of other metals, and no additional manual treatment is needed, while copper electrode needs manual grinding. Similarly, if high-speed graphite machining center is used to make electrodes, the speed will be faster, the efficiency will be higher, and there will be no dust problem. In these processes, the tool with proper hardness and graphite can reduce tool wear and copper electrode damage. If the milling time of graphite electrode is compared with that of copper electrode, the graphite electrode is 67% faster than that of copper electrode. In general, the machining of graphite electrode is 58% faster than that of copper electrode. In this way, the processing time is greatly reduced, and the manufacturing cost is also reduced.
The design of Graphite Electrode is different from that of traditional copper electrode. Many mold factories usually have different reserve in rough and finish machining of copper electrode, while graphite electrode uses almost the same reserve, which reduces the number of CAD / CAM and machining. For this reason alone, it is enough to improve the accuracy of mold cavity to a large extent
