Jan 2020 - 10: Tru-Tech makes EDM investment based on trust

Tru-Tech makes EDM investment based on trust

Tru-Tech Precision Engineering is a company that has established a reputation for quality and reliability within the high-tech industry sectors it supports.

It bases its business model on the expertise of its staff and the manufacturing equipment it relies upon.

Based in a 5,000sq/ft facility in Dundalk, in Ireland, Tru-Tech was originally established in 1996 to provide subcontract centreless grinding services to customers in the medical device sector.

It has built an enviable reputation as a leading manufacturer of high precision mould inserts for the medical moulding industry.
As customer requirements have changed, the company has invested in additional manufacturing technologies to meet these needs.

Managing Director, Joe Murphy says “That’s not to say that centreless grinding is no longer a key part of our business,” around half of our turnover comes from the high precision centreless and form grinding services we provide to various industry sectors.”
Tru-Tech has equipped itself to meet and often exceed the growing demands of its customer base that now includes medical and healthcare, automotive, electronics, computing and telecoms businesses.

Alongside the CNC milling and turning machines on the shopfloor, a CNC EDM die sinking machine supports the company’s ability to provide precision single and multiple mould tool cavities.
Joe Murphy says: “We used an ONA die sinker for many years, and Warwick Machine Tools’ sales and service engineer, Paul Barry, has always been on hand to look after the machine for us.

He was aware we were having issues with an old wire cut machine that was unreliable and expensive to repair, so during a visit to our facility, he mentioned the new Excetek V400G CNC wire cut machine.

On paper the cost-to-performance ratio looked unbeatable.”
Providing comparative performance levels to the existing Swiss and Japanese wire EDM machines, the new Excetek V400G offers a major cost-saving against any equivalent size machine tool, and the price includes training and installation.

The new V-4-hundred-G is capable of accommodating larger workpieces up to 750 x 550 x 215 mm weighing up to 500 kg with a compact overall footprint.
All the standard range of wire EDM machines from Excetek feature a C-frame structure and the new V400G features a honeycomb frame structure for rigidity and thermal stability.

The AC servo motor driven C1 class ball screws are cryogenically treated to minimise the thermal effects of the machine’s ambient operational environment, with high accuracy linear scales fitted for accurate positional feedback.
The machine also features Excetek’s latest corrosion-free electro discharge generator technology that improves cutting performance.

While the cutting speed of every wire EDM machine is limited by the laws of physics and set by the thickness of the raw material being cut, it is a manufacturer’s corner control that defines its machine accuracy.

Excetek’s software ensures the motion control and spark generator work together for the optimum power ramping and compensation dwell on corners, avoiding wire twist and reducing corner ‘washout’.

Wire diameters from 0.15 to 0.3mm can be used and for extended operation, a 50 kg jumbo wire feeder can also be fitted.
Joe Murphy says: “The machine is very keenly priced, and we were sending around 10,000 Euros of wire work out every month and, although the quality was good, we had very little control over the lead times.

Now we have the ability to carry out the work in-house we can control both the costs and the timescales.”
As well as the ability to produce very accurate and detailed copper electrode for the die sinking machine, the wire EDM has provided a further benefit with its ability to cut form grinding dressing blades from Syndite.

A composite material that combines the hardness, abrasion resistance and thermal conductivity of diamond with the toughness of tungsten carbide, Syndite blades could take a couple of hours to produce on a digital Optidress wheel forming dresser.

Using the Excetek V400G, Tru-Tech can now generate the blades in less than 30 minutes.