Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Laser "route" Printed Circuit Boards

Yes, okay, that makes sense. I'm familiar with sinker EDM, but I was thrown
off by the mention of a wire. Any sort of sinker process would seem to be
unnecessarily slow and require a very small electrode.

On Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 14:45, Jon Elson <elson@...> wrote:

>
>
> Michael Fagan wrote:
> > How would you etch a board using EDM? EDM cuts all the way through from
> the
> > top to bottom.
> >
> Somebody, I thought it was LPKF, had a machine a decade or so ago that
> worked this
> way. it had a drum that you wrapped a substrate around. This was a
> sheet of some kind
> of plastic with the copper foil laminated to it. There must have been
> an electrical connection
> from the drum to the foil. A whisker of something like Tungsten rode a
> carriage parallel to
> the drum's axis of rotation. The drum was spun and the whisker blasted
> away bits of the
> copper foil, eventually completing the PC board pattern.
>
> The copper foil was pretty thin, I think, maybe 1/4 Oz or so. Once it
> is vaporized, the substrate
> won't be affected.
>
> And, sinker EDM cuts as deep as the electrode is brought down, so it
> doesn't cut through unless
> you drive the electrode all the way through the material. But, the PC
> board thing was definitely
> a surface process only.
>
> Jon
>
>


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