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Residual Stress
Conferences |
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Make
Cut
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The ideal method for making the
cut would satisfy the following:
- Make a very straight cut
- Not remove any further material from already cut surfaces
- Not put in any stresses
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So we use wire
EDM (Electric Discharge Machining)
- Uses an electrically
charged wire
- A spark jumps from
the wire to the workpiece
- Material is locally
vaporized
- The wire never contacts
the part!
- Puts in virtually
no stress if cut in "skim cut" mode
drawing: Charmilles
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Pictures
of EDM cutting for contour measurements:
It is important
to carefully fixture the part during cutting to keep the cut plane from
moving as stresses relax. So here are some samples of clamping the part:

A newly designed fixture that
does a very nice job of holding the part. The part shown here is a Ti-6Al-4V
friction stir weld (FSW).
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This
is the clamping for the weld plate (results
page). This plate has already been cut, you can see the cut
running horizontally in the picture.
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This is the clamping for
a friction stir weld between 7050 and 2024 aluminum (see results
page).
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This is the clamping for
a piece of British rail. The cut went from front to back in this
picture. The shiny regions is where rust was cleaned away to improve
the cutting. Results to appear soon.
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