The authoritative public forum
  for Metal Finishing since 1989
-----

Electroforming mold life

adv.  

 

Sir,

I would like to ask about the life of the cavity that would be made with the electroforming whether it will function as any other mold or some extra care has to be taken. We can clean the cavity with the cotton or need to apply some oil after use of mold. The production is not regular.it is once 3-4 months whether we can hard chrome the cavity.

2nd thing I would like to ask as we can do the metal to metal ELECTRO DISCHARGE MACHINING (EDM) is it possible with the metal that we would be using in electroforming. Please clear my query. I would be highly obliged to you.

Thank you,

Gaurav Arora
- Delhi, India

---

Gaurav,

You can electroform several metals and some alloys. The most common are nickel and copper. If the mold is made of nickel then it will outlast a conventional alloy steel mold in regards of abrasion and corrosion resistance (i.e. it will not scratch as easily and you need not oil it). You may not want to chrome plate it as you will not see very much improvement (Chrome is for scratch and corrosion protection but an E-F nickel shell doesn't need it). Finally, yes you can EDM it but an adjustment has to be made to the EDM machine as nickel is more resistant to erosion by any source so EDM will proceed slower.

Guillermo Marrufo
Monterrey, NL, Mexico