| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 794743 | Journal of Materials Processing Technology | 2013 | 7 Pages |
•We investigate the effect of non-ultrasonic vibration to the micro-WEDM process.•Vibrations are applied to the wire and to the workpiece.•Greater improvement can be obtained with vibration applied to the workpiece.•The workpiece vibration method ensures the ability of cutting taper geometries.•Desired surface finish can be obtained more easily with workpiece vibration.
In micro electrical discharge machining (μEDM), since the discharge energy is very low and is usually performed by a resistor-capacitor (RC) generator the discharge process is highly complex and unpredictable. In addition, due to low discharge energy the discharge is unstable and the machining efficiency is reduced as a result of poor flushing condition in a very small gap. This greatly affects the productivity and limits micro EDM applications. This paper presents development methods to improve the machining efficiency of a widely accepted non-traditional machining process, micro wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM), using non-ultrasonic vibration. It is found that when vibration is applied to the micro-WEDM process, discharge is much more effective with fewer short circuits. From experiment results, it is observed that greater improvement can be achieved when the vibration is applied to the workpiece rather than to the wire. With vibration applied to the workpiece, machining efficiency can be increased by 2.5 times greater than without vibration and 1.5 times compared to the case vibration is applied to the wire. In addition, there exists an optimum relation between vibration parameters, energy and feedrate such that EDM at a constant feedrate can further improve the machining efficiency.
