We have just examined several ways to discharge dress copper electrodes and a suggestion for machine-dressing graphite ones. The thought of the unattended self-dressing of any machine tool's "cutter" is exciting. Just imagine if your CNC milling machines could move their spindles to a grinding station, resharpen their own end mills or inserts at pre-set, length-of-cut intervals, load a compensating offset for the material that was ground off and resume machining to one-tenth accuracies. Incredible! Even more incredible, is that this self-dressing EDM ability does not require a hybrid machine, a bazillion-dollar option or take up additional real estate on the shop floor. It comes that way, standard on every sinker. It's part of how EDM works. We just have to make it work for us. Today's modern EDM equipment is so very capable. We can do things that lathes, mills and grinders can't even consider, like "sharpen our own cutters", which we just covered. Depending upon the part and application, discharge dressing can increase productivity and machine autonomy without relying on other support equipment and people to run them. This is part of the challenge facing EDM operators, shop and production managers, manufacturing engineers, part designers and everyone else involved who must determine how to properly execute a part at a profit. As capable as the newest, the most modern, fully-optioned, multi-axes CNC sinker might be, it will only do what we tell it to do. This means that it's up to us to determine how to harness all of its features and capabilities in creative and innovative ways and to use them, exploit them and to profit from them. Discharge dressing electrodes is only one of the many unique capabilities that EDM offers.
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