Note: Graphite electrodes for electrical discharge machining, also known as copper electrodes

The increasing complexity of mold geometry and the diversification of product applications have led to increasing requirements for the discharge accuracy of spark machines. The advantage of graphite electrodes is that they are easy to process, have a high removal rate by electrical discharge machining, and have low graphite loss. Therefore, some group based spark machine customers have abandoned copper electrodes and switched to graphite electrodes. In addition, some electrodes with special shapes cannot be made of copper, but graphite is easier to form, and copper electrodes are heavier, making them unsuitable for machining large electrodes. These factors have led to the application of graphite electrodes by some group based spark machine customers.

2: Graphite electrodes are easier to process, and the processing speed is significantly faster than copper electrodes. For example, using a milling process to process graphite can achieve a processing speed that is 2-3 times faster than other metals and does not require additional manual processing, while copper electrodes require manual grinding. Similarly, if a high-speed graphite machining center is used to manufacture electrodes, the speed will be faster, the efficiency will be higher, and there will be no dust problem. In these machining processes, selecting tools and graphite with appropriate hardness can reduce tool wear and copper damage. If the milling time of graphite electrode and copper electrode is specifically compared, graphite is 67% faster than copper electrode. In general, in electrical discharge machining, machining using graphite electrode is 58% faster than using copper electrode. As a result, processing time is significantly reduced, while also reducing manufacturing costs.

3: The design of graphite electrode is different from that of traditional copper electrode. Many mold factories usually have different reserve amounts for rough and finish machining of copper electrodes, while graphite electrodes use almost the same reserve amount, which reduces the number of CAD/CAM and machine processing times. This alone is sufficient to greatly improve the accuracy of mold cavities.