A computer-aided EDM electrode design system for mold manufacturing

A large number of EDM electrodes are used in plastic injection mold manufacturing. However, electrode design is very time-consuming. This paper introduces a computer-aided electrode design system for plastic injection mold manufacturing. An algorithm to detect sharp corner uncut for electrode design is introduced in the paper. Through this algorithm, sharp corner uncut can be detected by calculating the surface angles at their common edges. Using this system, when electrode boundaries are identified either by the user or through detected sharp corner edges, the electrode tool, its holder and a working coordinate system (WCS) for electrode setting are created automatically. The system has been tested and has proved to be able to shorten the electrode design lead-time significantly.