Apparatus for orienting the wire electrode support and guide member and the machining fluid nozzle of a travelling wire EDM apparatus

Claim 1

In a travelling wire EDM apparatus wherein a workpiece is cut by electrical discharged between an electrode wire and said workpiece, said apparatus comprising a pair of electrode wire guide member, support means for said workpiece and means for relatively displacing said electrode wire guide members and said workpiece support means such as to cut said workpiece according to a desired shape, and a mechanism for orienting at least one unitary assembly comprising one of said electrode wire guide members and a nozzle for injecting machining fluid in a machining zone between said electrode wire and said workpiece, said mechanism comprising a holder for said unitary assembly, a table on which said holder is mounted, swivelling means connecting said holder to said table, a pair of cross-slides supporting said table, a first servo motor driven leadscrew for linearly displacing one of said cross-slides relative to the other, a second servo motor driven leadscrew for linearly displacing the other of said cross-slides relative to said table, such that the direction of displacement of each of said cross-slides is transverse to the longitudinal axis of said electrode wire for causing the electrode-wire to be inclined relative to the workpiece, a second screwthread on each of said leadscrews having a pitch different from the pitch of the screwthread displacing each of said cross-slides, said second screwthread displacing a nut in the same direction as the direction of displacement of said table at a speed different from the speed of displacement of said table, and means connecting each of said nuts to said unitary assembly holder such as to swivel said unitary assembly and maintain said unitary assembly constantly aligned automatically with the longitudinal axis of said electrode wire while passing through the machining zone between the electrode wire and the workpiece.