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Micro electrical discharge drilling (ED-drilling) is a machining method used to make micro holes in hard-to-cut materials. The RC-discharge generator is often used because it creates a short and strong discharge spark. However, this method has issues such as current oscillation between tool electrode and workpiece, causing polarity changes that increase tool wear, and a low material removal rate due to long spark delay time. Furthermore, micro ED-drilling results in a large taper angle due to second discharge sparks created by debris in the narrow gap. To address these issues, the effect of adding graphite powder to the working fluid was studied. The graphite powder in kerosene created a bridge effect that reduced tool wear and taper angle, while improving MRR and surface roughness. The electrical conditions were not changed, and the machining process was improved by only altering the working fluid without modifying the existing system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent developments in material science have concentrated not only on the improvement in mechanical properties, but also on the machinability that was difficult for system profiles. The present research explains the machinability assessment of the part of the sintered powder metallurgy using an electric discharge machining. The ferrous clay matrix preparations are constructed from iron–carbon–copper material and bentonite clay. The selected input parameters for the measurement of machinability are wt. % of clay, current (A), pulse on time (µs) and voltage (V), whereas the electrode wear rate, material removal rate and surface roughness (Ra) are considered as performance features. Results show that the performance parameters have been optimized at three different parametric conditions. Further, to obtain single optimum condition the hybrid GRA-TOPSOS methodology has been implemented for maximum MRR with minimum EWR and low surface roughness. The single optimum condition has been found at 5% clay, current 7 A, voltage 49 V and pulse on time 400 µs. The study of micro-structure and chemical composition of machined surfaces has been carried out using scanning electron microscopy with X-ray diffraction and energy-dispersive spectrometry analysis, respectively. The SEM exposes the less recast layer and micro-cracks during electrical discharge machining of ferrous clay composite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polycrystalline diamond (PCD) is increasingly becomes an important material used in the industry for cutting tools of difficult-to-machine materials due to its excellent characteristics such as hardness, toughness and wear resistance. However, its applications are restricted because of the PCD material is difficult to machine. Therefore, electrical discharge machining (EDM) is an ideal method suitable for PCD materials due to its non-contact process nature. The performance of EDM, however, is significantly influenced by its process parameters and type of electrode. In this study, soft computing technique was utilized to optimize the performance of the EDM in roughing condition for eroding PCD with copper tungsten or copper nickel electrode. Central composite design with five levels of three machining parameters viz. peak current, pulse interval and pulse duration has been used to design the experimental matrix. The EDM experiment was conducted based on the design experimental matrix. Subsequently, the effectiveness of EDM on shaping PCD with copper tungsten and copper nickel was evaluated in terms of material removal rate (MRR) and electrode wear rate (EWR). It was found that copper tungsten electrode gave lower EWR, in comparison with the copper nickel electrode. The predictive model of radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) was developed to predict the MRR and EWR of the EDM process. The prominent predictive ability of RBFNN was confirmed as the prediction errors in terms of mean-squared error were found within the range of 6.47E−05 to 7.29E−06. Response surface plot was drawn to study the influences of machining parameters of EDM for shaping PCD with copper tungsten and copper nickel. Subsequently, moth search algorithm (MSA) was used to determine the optimal machining parameters, such that the MRR was maximized and EWR was minimized. Based on the obtained optimal parameters, confirmation test with the absolute error within the range of 1.41E−06 to 5.10E−05 validated the optimization capability of MSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrical discharge machining is a very accurate non-traditional manufacturing process for creating tiny apertures, complex shapes and geometries within mechanical parts and assemblies. Its performance is evaluated in terms of surface roughness, existence of cracks, voids, and recast layer on the surface of product. The high heat generated on the electrically discharged material during the electrical discharge machining (EDM) process unfortunately decreases the quality of product. In this paper, the high strength and unique electrical and thermal properties of multi-wall carbon nanotubes are used to improve the EDM performance when machining the AISI H13 tool steel, by means of copper electrodes. Material removal rate, electrode wear rate, surface roughness, and recast layer were measured in presence of carbon nanotubes in the dielectric, then compared to the outcome of traditional EDM. Experiments show that mixing multi-wall carbon nanotubes within the dielectric makes the EDM more efficient, particularly if machining parameters are set at low pulse of energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pipe cutting technology plays an important role in the process of offshore platforms decommissioning, as many devices such as tubing, drill pipe, and casing need to be decommissioned. In this study, a novel cutting pipe technology based on electro-discharge machining (EDM) is proposed, and a cutting pipe mechanism is developed to cut the pipes for decommissioning offshore platforms. The machining principles and characteristics of the technique are described. The effects of machining parameters, including tool polarity, dielectric fluid, electrode material and width, pulse on-time, pulse off-time, peak voltage, and electrode rotation speed to machining performance, are investigated. The material removal rate (MRR) of the machined casing and tool electrode wear ratio (EWR) is obtained based on the calculation of the percentage of mass loss per machining time. The experimental results show that a better cutting performance can be obtained with negative tool polarity at the conditions of dielectric fluid of emulsion, pulse on-time of 500 μs, pulse off-time of 200 μs, peak voltage of 70 V, copper electrode width of 28 mm, and electrode rotation speed of 250 rpm is a better choice. Additionally, the cutting slots surface has been investigated by the means of SEM. The cutting slots machined by the rotary EDM are clean and smooth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]