1、 The importance of copper in mold processing
In mold processing, there are many methods used for mold processing, such as milling machine processing, grinding machine processing, wire cutting processing, lathe processing, and discharge machining with spark machines. Copper rod is an electrode used in spark machine discharge machining. The spark machine discharge machining using copper rod as an electrode is mainly used for the cavity machining of molds, which is the core and key part of the mold.
2、 Next, let's talk about the importance of copper in mold processing, from the following aspects:
1. The processing blind spots of common processing methods require the surface shape of the mold cavity to be exactly the same as the shape of the product itself, which is also a basic requirement for mold processing. The most commonly used processing methods in mold processing are three-axis milling machines, machining centers, engraving processing, and wire cutting. Firstly, let's talk about three similar machining methods: three-axis vertical milling machine, machining center, and engraving machining. The biggest difference between them lies in some differences in control and driving methods. The key similarity is that they all use cutting tools for force processing. Due to the effect of force, considering the strength of the cutting tool, the ratio of tool diameter to blade length is limited. In actual machining, if the depth needs to be machined, the diameter of the tool must be relatively large. For small areas that need to be machined, the tool cannot be too long. This situation is very common in actual product modeling, such as machining some sharp corners and narrow and deep small areas. Although wire cutting can solve the problem of sharp corners, it can only process through holes, and if it is a blind hole, it is powerless.
2. The hardness of mold materials is due to the special requirements of the product material or the product itself. Some mold materials have high hardness, even close to the hardness of cutting tools. For such mold materials, if they are directly processed with cutting tools, it will inevitably cause rapid wear and tear of the processing tools, and the surface quality is difficult to meet the requirements. Therefore, if such materials are directly processed, they will not meet the requirements in terms of processing quality and efficiency
3. The hardness of the material has no effect on electrical discharge machining. Using copper as an electrode for mold machining belongs to electrical discharge machining. In electrical discharge machining, the hardness of the processed material has no effect on electrical discharge machining. This is one of the advantages of copper machining, which precisely solves the problem in Article 2.
4. The cutting performance of materials used for processing copper bars is usually purple copper, which is a relatively soft material with good ductility. In actual processing, the cutting performance is much easier than directly processing steel, which is one of the advantages of copper bar processing and solves the problem in the second point.
5. The flexibility of copper wire itself is different from that of molds. For molds, a certain part of the product's shape can only be completely processed on a certain piece of material, regardless of the difficulty of processing. If only one copper wire is processed for a product, there may be blind spots or difficult to process areas. The blind spots and difficult to process parts can be decomposed into several copper wires that are easy to process, as long as these parts can be pieced together to fully include the product's shape. In this way, the problem in the first point is solved, which is also one of the important key factors in the existence of copper.