The history of the technical development of Sodick began with the development of an electrical discharge power unit, which constitutes the heart of an electrical discharge machine.

 

Electrical discharge machining proceeds in a dielectric fluid tank by generating electrical discharge between two energized electrodes, namely a machining electrode and a workpiece, and gradually reducing the distance between the two.

 

The material of the workpiece is melted and vaporized by the energy of the discharge, and blown away by the high pressure generated from the discharge. The electrical discharge machining proceeds through repetition of the above phenomenon tens to hundreds of thousand times a second.

 

In high-speed machining on a wire-cut electrical discharge machine, for instance, a power circuit that applies currents of 1000 A for 1 microsecond or less and a pulse control unit that controls the currents generate pulse currents repetitively and stably.

 

In finish machining, a pulse control unit generates pulse currents of the order of a nanosecond repetitively and stably.  In a die-sinking electrical discharge machine, on the other hand, a pulse control unit that optimally controls the pulse width and current value generates stable pulse currents to minimize electrode weare.

 

These control units, which are generically called electrical discharge power units, serve as the driving force of the high performance of Sodick's products as their hearts. (Even light travels only about 30 cm in a nanosecond.)