Coventry-based Hi-Tech Aerospace Components — a specialist in wire-cut, solid-sink and fast-hole-drill EDM processes — turned to Coventry-based Sodi-Tech EDM Ltd (www.sodi-techedm.co.uk) for its latest wire machine — an AG600L Premium.

This is the company’s eighth Sodick wire-cut EDM, and the new machine’s high specification and capability are allowing it to do the work previously undertaken by two older models.

With 10 employees and a 7,000ft2 facility, Hi-Tech focuses on parts that are difficult to produce using conventional metal-cutting techniques such as milling and turning. In the aerospace arena, turbine blades, nozzle guide vanes, rakes and probes are manufactured in exotic materials such as Nimonic and titanium.

Co-director Bob Duffin says: “We took the option to replace two older machines, as this would give us more space. While that means we are now one machine down, the new Sodick AG600L Premium soon swallowed up the work of the other two machines, and plenty more besides.”

Hi-Tech already had a Sodick AG600L on-site, so the acquisition of an AG600L Premium was a natural progression. The company is a Sodick wire EDM shop, and the new machine gives continuity of supply to its customers; it can swap jobs between machines with ease, to ensure that customer orders are delivered on schedule.

Furthermore, it claims that running costs are low compared with other machines — and employees are familiar with the technology.

On a day-to-day basis, the AG600L Premium at Hi-Tech has been set to work producing engine parts and aerospace tooling from materials that include heat-resistant super-alloys and stainless steels, often to tight tolerances of 0.005mm, in batches from five to 20-off.

Mr Duffin adds: “We produce quite a lot of aerospace ring-type components — some up to 2m in diameter — and we have to wire them into halves or several segments. We like the three-sided rise-and-fall work-tank on the AG600L Premium and the ability to drop down the front panel.

"This means we can undertake wire cutting with a large proportion of the ring sticking out at the front of the machine. It’s not possible to do this on a number of other machines.”