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New Products
GE Blue Arc™
Machine and Process
—Mitsui Seiki
Scott Walker, president of Mitsui
Seiki USAspoke to the media at IMTS
2016 about the new Blue Arc™ ma-
chining process that, according to GE
Reports, “cuts through titanium like
a hot knife through butter.” GE part-
nered with Mitsui Seiki to develop a
five-axis, horizontal machining center
with a BlueArc™head attached that is
built in Mitsui’s headquarters in Japan.
GE has the prototype machine in its
global research facility in Van Buren
Township and the system is ready for
testing by interested companies.
Blue Arc™ is an electro-erosion
metal removal method and represents
what Mitsui Seiki reports is the fastest
way to rough cut extremely tough al-
loys such as aerospace-grade titanium
and nickel alloys. Using high amper-
age, low voltage electrical energy,
sparks and heat are created between
the electrode tool and the workpiece.
During the sparking, electrical arcing
activity, portions of the workpiece
are melted and the molten material
is quickly flushed away with a high-
pressure system. The process uses very
low force, permitting higher feeds and
speeds. According to both companies
Blue Arc™ is about four to five times
faster than conventional machining of
these super tough materials.
The prototype Mitsui Seiki Blue
Arc™ machine is a hybrid; it can do
both BlueArc™ and conventional ma-
chining in the one platform. In opera-
tion, the Blue Arc™ process conducts
all the roughing operations, the head
is removed with a dedicated robot, and
a conventional multiple-point cutting
tool is put in its place to perform the
finishing operations.
Mitsuis Seiki reports because of
Blue Arc’s low forces, the process can
eliminate a high-powered, high torque
machine tool and highly engineered
cutting tools and replace them with
a smaller, less rigid machine and a
simple electrode tool. The process is
ideal for difficult to reach, deep cuts
and very thin cuts.