Investigation of the spark cycle on material removal rate in wire electrical discharge machining of advanced materials

Scott F. Miller, Albert J. Shih, Jun Qu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

69 Scopus citations

Abstract

The development of new, advanced engineering materials and the need for precise and flexible prototypes and low-volume production have made the wire electrical discharge machining (EDM) an important manufacturing process to meet such demands. This research investigates the effect of spark on-time duration and spark on-time ratio, two important EDM process parameters, on the material removal rate (MRR) and surface integrity of four types of advanced material: porous metal foams, metal bond diamond grinding wheels, sintered Nd-Fe-B magnets, and carbon-carbon bipolar plates. An experimental procedure was developed. During the wire EDM, five types of constraints on the MRR due to short circuit, wire breakage, machine slide speed limit, and spark on-time upper and lower limits are identified. An envelope of feasible EDM process parameters is generated for each work-material. Applications of such a process envelope to select process parameters for maximum MRR and for machining of micro features are discussed. Results of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis of surface integrity are presented.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)391-400
Number of pages10
JournalInternational Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture
Volume44
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2004

Funding

The authors acknowledge Magnequench and Dr. B. M. Ma for the sintered Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets, Porvair PLC and Dr. K. Butcher for the metal foam and carbon–carbon bipolar plate, and Cummins Inc. and D. J. Gust for the diamond grinding wheels. Part of this research was sponsored by the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Transportation Technologies, as part of the High Temperature Materials Laboratory User Program, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC for the US Department of Energy under contract number DE-AC05-00OR22725.

Keywords

  • Electrical discharge machining
  • Material removal rate
  • Surface integrity

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