Betterbrass, the world’s fastest brass wire, launched by Erodex UK, has helped users increase cutting speed by up to 10% in early trials.
Launched in the UK this summer, Betterbrass is a next-generation special-alloy brass wire from Bedra (Berkenhoff) in Germany.
Thanks to innovative alloy and casting technology, along with a specially developed annealing process, Bedra engineers created a brass wire electrode comprised of a completely new alloy that is plug-and-play on all machine types. The new product delivers performance never before seen in traditional brass wire, with reported cutting speeds up to 10% faster.
“Since its launch earlier in the summer, the new betterbrass wire range has received a positive response from customer trials, meaning that we can now provide EDM subcontractors with a cost-effective step up from standard brass wire”, comments Josh Bye, Sales Engineer at Erodex UK.
“As UK industry starts to recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, we were keen to be able to introduce a new, cost-effective wire to the market that also enables increased performance. Users will save money by using the wire, as any increase in wire speed ultimately means less wire usage,” continues Bye.
Erodex UK is the market leader in providing EDM wire, wear parts, and other EDM consumables, and has cemented its position as the UK’s leading authority on all things EDM. In addition to their vast experience in the EDM industry, this is due to their strong working relationship with Berkenhoff (Bedra) in Germany.
During August 2019, Erodex UK announced the launch of the world’s fastest EDM speed wire, gapstar ONE. Building on the strengths of their cobracut, broncocut and topas ranges, Bedra developed a new coating technology called TRIMPAC. gapstar ONE quickly became the wire of choice for those looking for premium performance. Still, it is a different segment of the market that Erodex UK believes will continue to benefit from the betterbrass range.
“Being the fastest EDM speed wire available in the world, our gapstar ONE range is a very high-end wire, which we do advise if people are looking for a significant step up in speeds. However, we know that there is a segment of the market that does not demand premium performance but still wants greater performance and reliability than they get from standard brass wire. It is these users who are now appreciating the benefit of the new BetterBrass range of wire.
“During customer trials since launch, BetterBrass has proved to perform up to 10% faster than standard brass wire. Being a stronger wire than standard brass also means improved reliability when auto wire threading. Users have reported fewer breakages when applying increased power through the wire and better surface finishes too,” adds Bye.
Luke Hobbs, Director of HLP Engineering Solutions in Halesowen, West Midlands, has experienced firsthand the benefits of using both the gapstar and betterbrass ranges.
“We’ve used both Gapstar and BetterBrass wires from Erodex. Simply put, Gapstar is the best wire we have ever used for performance and speed on our Sodick machines. We found it ideal for cutting punches and other long-running jobs. We will have no hesitation in using Gapstar for this type of work in the future. We found that better brass is excellent for threading and, for the small increase in wire cost, offers a decent speed improvement of around 10-12% over standard brass wire with the same settings. When the job dictates, we will certainly use this wire again”.
