Experimental investigation of a new method combining EDM and ECM to cut the workpiece with foil electrode
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Experimental investigation of a new method combining EDM and ECM to cut the workpiece with foil electrode Xiaoyu Wu 1 Received: 15 March 2020 / Accepted: 10 August 2020 # Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The discharge craters and recast material are the characteristics of the surface machined by using EDM, which deteriorate the surface quality and other properties such as fatigue strength of the workpiece. In this study, a new combined machining method which utilizes a thin foil as tool electrode and combines EDM and ECM into a single process for slicing workpiece is proposed and investigated through experiments. The method can improve the surface quality by using ECM to remove the discharge craters and recast layer of EDM surface. The advantages of utilizing a foil instead of a wire as tool electrode for slicing the workpiece is that tool vibration can be considerably reduced and the efficiency of electrochemical dissolution increased. The experimental results show that good surface quality can be obtained by eliminating the craters and recast layer of EDM surface without sacrificing the cutting efficiency. Two factors of the combined machining, namely the height and the feed rate of the foil electrode, which have significant influence on the final surface quality are investigated. The taper of the kerf, kerf width, and tool wear are discussed experimentally. The combined machining with a thin foil as tool electrode provides a promising method for workpiece slicing in the future. Keywords Electrical discharge machining (EDM) . Electrochemical machining (ECM) . Combined machining . Recast layer . Surface quality
1 Introduction Electrical discharge machining (EDM), a nontraditional machining, has been widely used to process the conductive or semiconductive workpiece irrespective of their hardness due to no contact force generated during the process. However, owing to the material removal mechanism of EDM, which is vaporization and melting, the surface machined by EDM is covered with numerous discharge craters and recast layer. The recast layer not only leads to the poor surface quality but deteriorates some properties such as fatigue strength of workpiece [1]. Electrochemical machining (ECM), another nontraditional machining technology, can dissolve the conductive material at atomic sizes and produce smooth and recast layer-free surfaces owing to its material removal mechanism, which is electrochemical dissolution of anode workpiece [2].
* Xiaoyu Wu [email protected] 1
School of Mechatronic Engineering, Xi’an Technological University, Xi’an 710021, China
Therefore, many researches have been carried out using ECM to remove the recast layer and improve the surface quality of EDM surfaces. Nguyen et al. [3–5] proposed a compound machining which combines microEDM and microECM in a unique hybrid machining method using low-resistivity deionized water and short voltage pulse. The method can improve the finish of machined surface by exploiting the electrochemical
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