Seibu Selling Features

Wire EDMs Made In Japan

At one time, most wire EDMs were produced in either Japan or Switzerland. In order to lower manufacturing cost, EDM builders moved their plants to countries with lower labor cost. Seibu decided against this trend because it was against their philosophy. They wanted to have the highest quality wire EDM on the market which meant the EDMs must be built in Japan. Seibu high quality wire EDM machines have made in Japan since 1972. Seibu is the only EDM manufacturer who guarantees their positioning pitch accuracy. The wire EDMs are built in Seibu’s ISO certified factory in Koga City, Fukuoka Prefecture which is located in southern Japan.

Seibu machines target the high end precision wire EDM market which requires a quality machine designed to last and produce consistent results. Only 30 to 40 individually created high quality Seibu machines are hand crafted per month. Seibu manufacturing philosophy is about quality and not quantity. High end brands are rarely the most popular but always offer the highest quality. Since Seibu machines manufactured in Japan, they are built for precision and will outlast and outperform the competition.

Hand scraping also known as Kisage is a manual process of using a flat scraper in order to achieve a flat surface on a casting that is not possible with CNC machining. The hand scraping process removes high spots left behind by during the machining. This requires skill and only a master craftsman can achieve its flatness. Hand scraped surfaces provides smooth, gliding movement between a table and column that results in stability, repeatability, improved part geometry and better surface finishes. Hand scraping creates contact points and oil pockets on mating surfaces which prevents these mating surface from sticking. Many machine tool builders have abandoned this manufacturing process because it reduces manufacturing cost or because they're unable to find a master scraper. At Seibu, hand scraping is perfomed all wire EDMs. Additionally, Seibu uses meehanite casting which has dense, fine grain structure that ensures casting solidity and consistent physical properties, unlike dianite or rhenocast which is a cheaper substitute used by other manufacturers.

FANUC Control

The new Smart NC (Fanuc Control) 21.5” touch panel, high spped control contains over 4,000 cutting conditions and can access all operations like a smartphone. The CAM-Station option is loaded with a new CAM function, which enables a CAD file to be converted to NC code.

Air Cooled Cabinets

A fan built into the cabinet is used to circulate air throughout the cabinet which keeps circuits and boards at a cool temperature.

Absolutley nothing stresses out a shop owner, EDM operator or foreman like an unrelaible wire feeder. Our wire feeder is so dependable you will sleep good at night knowing it will consistently thread. Seibu's dry annealing automatic wire feeder passes the wire through the AWF tube and where it is held by the fixation plates while the tension rollers make the wire taught. Annealing current is passed between the tension rollers and fixation plates which results in 17" of straight and stiff wire. Combined with the friction sensor, Seibu's can achieve almost a 100% success rate. This patented process makes the Seibu's AWF the most reliable in the industry. The AWF can thread submerged, through the KERF and interuppted cuts.

Heidenhain Absolute Glass Scale Feedback

Seibu wire EDMs come standard with Heidenhain .05μm absolute glass scale feedback. With the absolute measuring method, the absolute position information is gained directly from the graduation of the measuring standard. Absolute glass scales do not require a reference run and are more resistant to EMC interferences.

When EDMing multi parts, an uncut portion remains so the slug does not fall into the work tank. Slugs dropping into the work tank can result in scrapped parts, and machine damage resulting in downtime. Seibu’s core stitch welds the wire EDM cores (slugs) so they do not drop. Without core stitch, a tab is left uncut so the part does not drop. This tab also results in additional programming time. Eventually each tab has to be cut off and the part removed from the work zone. The man hours for stopping the cut and collecting the cut off cores, & restarting the machine can add up. With Seibu’s core stitch technology, it is possible to remove all the cores at the same time. he cores can be removed by tapping lightly. Core Stitch drastically reduces the time for removing slugs and is standard on all seibu wire EDM machines.

Super Fine Finish Circuit

The super fine finish circuit is standard on all Seibu wire EDMs. Finishes below 6RMS can be achieved on both steels and tungsten carbide.

Anti-Electrolysis Circuit

Seibu's anti-electrolysis power supply uses an AC circuit to eliminate negatively charges oxygen from attacking the workpiece. Often the wire EDM process is the last machining process before a part is completed. Because of this, the part needs to come out of the EDM machine looking the same before the EDM process. Additionally Seibu's anti-electrolysis circuit will reduces recast layer, eliminate bluing in titanium and reduce cobalt depletion in tungsten carbide. When machining tungsten carbide, Seibu's El Coating feature will protect the part from electrolysis even while the wire EDMing is not running.

Corner Control

Corner control is the process of making corrective measures in order to eliminate corner washout. The smaller the corner radii, the more important control control becomes. Seibu's corner control eliminates corner washout by automatically reducing the cutting speed going into the corner, increasing wire tension and reducing flushing pressure resulting in perfect corner radii.

Workpiece Straightness Circuit

Seibu's bow straightness circuit practically eliminates work piece bow. This 4.7" thick D2 has less than .00004" bow.

Different Height Software

This software senses the changing thickness of the work piece an automatically adjust the power parameters & flushing pressure. This provides a Different Height Softwareconsistent KERF an eliminates wire breakages.

Work Table

The hardened table reduces scratches and ceramic insulated table improves surface finish & reduces electrolysis.

Auto. Vertical Worktank Door

The work tank sensors will sound an alarm and stop the EDM if the operator put hands in the work tank area during machining.

Automatic Water Level Control

The Z axis height will automatically set the dielectric water level in the worktank.

Lower Arm Rubber Bellow

The rubber bellow eliminates eroded particles from collecting on the lower arm. This prevents the arm from sticking as it passes through the rear slide plate which can cause machining inaccuracies. Additionally, water constantly flows along the backplate which prevents debris from collecting on the backplate.

Stainless Steel Back Plate

The rigid stainless steel seal plate located on the back of the worktank does not have to be serviced.

Remote Control Handbox

Operation is greatly improved with the remote control handbox which can be used to activate common machining operations. The back of the hand box has LED light that be used to inspect the worktank.

Dielectric Chiller

Standard on all Seibu wire EDMs, the dielectric chiller automatically monitors and controls the temperature of the deionized water. This stabilizes the workpiece resulting in improved part accuracy and repeatability.

Pre-Filter

The pre-filter is located in the dielectric tank and captures EDM particles before they enter the paper filters.

Seibu wire EDMs use 4 high quality MAN triple bellow filters. MAN filters results in faster cutting speeds and the reduction of secondary erosion. These 2 micron filters improve surface finshes and reduces resin usage. The filters can last up to 6 months which vastly eliminates downtime by reducing the number of filter changes per year. Many of our competitor machines only come 2 low cost filters which may only last as little as 150 hours. Seibu filters are built to last & enhance machining performance. They are designed to out perform the competition so you spend time EDMing & not ordering & replacing parts.

Deinozation Bottles

Seibu machines come with two 10 liter deionization bottles (total 20L) which reduces maintenance intervals.

Auto. Wire Alignment Block

The wire alignment block automatically vertically aligns the wire.

Tool Box

All Seibu wire EDM machines come with a tool box which includes wrenches, screw drivers, shimm gauges, hooks an additional spare parts.

45° Taper Cut Software

Large taper angles are often used on plastic extrusion dies, mold inserts and aerospace parts. Wire EDMs are used to achieve these angles when conventional machining is not viable. For extreme taper EDMing, Seibu offers the 45° taper cut option. The 45° taper cut option uses Seibu designed software that compensates for the wire stretching during a large taper cut to achieve perfect wire taper angles.

Seibu’s EL coating covers the carbide surface with a 1 micron layer of brass on the final skim pass. The new technology can cut down the loss of cobalt by 70%. To activate the EL Coating a simple M code is added to the CNC program. The thin brass coating increases the life of the carbide punches and dies resulting in increased production runs. Additionally, Seibu’s anti-electrolysis circuit reduces the amount of carbide micro-cracking / cobalt depletion during the wire EDM process resulting in longer carbide tool life. Seibu's fine finish circuit which is standard with the machine can produce a carbide surface finish down to 5RMS and eliminate wire lines on the part. This fine finish eleimates hand polishing resulting in increased productivity.

Rotary Table

This 3rd party axis is mounted in the work tank and used to either:
• index then burn
• turn while burning the part (5 axis requires servo control)
• spin the part

During long run EDM machining, a wire EDM upper head can move because of thermal expansion created by the change within the room temperature. For some shops it’s very difficult to keep their EDM room within the close temperature specs required by the manufacturer.With Seibu’s Thermal Adjust 24 feature, thermal displacement can be corrected and thus eliminating costly machining errors created by a change in the room temperature.

Seibu's small hole attachment device is a start-hole drill that can be easily mounted on a machine. The device can EDM start holes in hardened steel and tungsten carbide (WC). The small hole driller is easily attached to the Seibu wire EDM in minutes and is an ideal solution for missing start holes.

20kg Wire Feeder

The 20kg (44 lbs.) wire feeder is used to increase unattended machining operations. The feeder can hold 20kg spool of wire which can last up 4 times longer than a 11 lb spool of wire.