Kerf width and arc length

Experiments have shown that if a square piece of 15x15mm is machined with the BX17 generator with the following parameters:

  • Material Aluminum
  • Water conductivity 15 micro Siemens
  • BX17 gap control voltage setpoint 6.5V
  • Ontime 3 micro seconds
  • Off time 27 micro seconds
  • Cutting current 22 A

Then without compensation for the wire thickness (used wire is 0.25mm), the resulting piece becomes 14.66×14.66mm. This means that the total kerf width is 0.34mm and the clearance of the wire to the workpiece (or length of the arc) is 45 micrometers.

As additional info, the achieved cutting speed with the above parameters was 4.3 mm/min and the thickness of the Aluminum was 20mm.

Please note that for each material and change in parameters the kerf width will be different. A discussion on this topic can be found here: Forum – Accuracy and Precision