Estudo de viabilidade para substituição de material de eletrodo de cobre por grafite na usinagem através de eletroerosão por penetração

Abstract

Nowadays, producing more with less is the key to maintaining the continued growth of all companies, whether large companies or small factories focus on maximizing profitability. The constant search for the development of new technologies that allow the optimization of the time and costs involved in the elaboration and construction of the product, are becoming more and more indispensable. With each passing day, new inputs for manufacturing are being developed and applied to serve customers seeking agility, efficiency and lower cost. The present work presents a study to evaluate the applicability of graphite, verifying its potential as an electrode for electro erosion by penetration. This material has some advantages with respect to the copper that is frequently used for the same process; this choice is due to the little knowledge about graphite as a whole. Knowing what their real advantages and disadvantages are, are important points to understand the gains obtained when choosing this raw material for processing. In this work, practical tests were developed between some graffiti brands and after the selection of the one that presented the best performance, new tests were applied, this time directly comparing the use of graphite and copper as the raw material for the electrode. The results of the study showed significant gains when using graphite, advantages such as lower cost of investment in raw material acquisition, shorter time to manufacture the electrode in the machining center and higher speed during its use in penetration electro erosion. These benefits are passed on directly to the final cost of the product, enabling greater profit.