Five Axis Electric Discharge Machining

Akhil Jaiswal, Akhil Praveen, ASP Gautam, Amal Jyothis, Amit Kamboj
B.Tech Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology



Abstract In recent years, with the development of the
researches on aviation, space and energy fields, integral
impeller, blisk, shrouded turbine blisk and hooded impeller
have been used more and more broadly. The construction of
these key parts is complex. Their weight is lighter than
before. Their structural strength is enhanced. Their reliability
and efficiency are greatly improved. And these parts are
made of anti-high temperature and corrosion resistance
materials. These characters make it difficult to machine them
precisely. In this report, five-axis EDM equipment is studied
to solve this problem. Based on this equipment, the
processing techniques of integral impeller, blisk, shrouded
turbine blisk and hooded impeller are researched. And the
electrodes are designed.

Keywords- EDM, Five-axis, I ntegral shrouded blisk;
Electrode feeding path searching.
I. INTRODUCTION
Electric discharge machining (EDM) [1], sometimes also
referred to as spark machining, spark eroding, burning, die
sinking or wire erosion, is a manufacturing process whereby
a desired shape is obtained using electrical discharges
(sparks). Material is removed from the workpiece by a series
of rapidly recurring current discharges between
two electrodes, separated by a dielectric liquid and subject to
an electric voltage. One of the electrodes is called the tool-
electrode, or simply the tool or electrode, while the other
is called the workpiece-electrode, or workpiece.
With the development of the researches on aviation, space
and energy fields, more and more difficult-to-machine
materials and complex surface work pieces have been used.
Nowadays, integral impeller, blisk, shrouded turbine blisk
and hooded impeller have been used broadly. These work
pieces have the characters of anti-high temperature and
corrosion resistance. They have better performance in bad
work conditions than divided structures. But the integral
features make it difficult for them to be machined. Although
they can be machined by milling machine or precision
casting, when it is difficult for the material to be milled or
the holes in the part are too small to be milled, the milling
method is not suitable. The precision casting is only suitable
for the material that can be forged. And its casting process is
complex. Electro discharge machining can erode material
gradually by the high energy of the spark. Because of this
feature, hard materials can be machined easily. In recent
years, the EDM techniques have developed very rapidly. It is
widely used in the fields of aerospace, automotive industry
and surgical components. Five-axis NC machine can acquire
complex spatial trace. Therefore it can solve the problem of
intervening flexibly. The five-axis EMD NC machine not
only has the character of discharging machining, but also has
the character of Multi-spindle linkage. So it is the best
equipment to machine the complex curved surface work
pieces and the material that is difficult to machine.

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of 5-axis EDM of integral
shrouded blisk

II. CONSTRUCTION
2.1. The special NC system of the Five-axis EDM
Machine:
The NC system [2] designed for the Five-axis EDM machine
is the basis of curved surface parts machining. The NC
system not only controls the motion of every functional
component, but also the sparing parameters and the servo
system. Several times parameters need to be added to it, in
order to add one axis to the machine. So the five-axis EDM
machine has plenty of parameters, and their combination
using is complex. While machining, the electrode need to
feed back, lift and wobble besides advanced feed. These
motions make the calculation of the NC system more
complex than the NC systems of mechanical machining
equipments.
All the software of the NC system are modular. And the NC
system is an open structure, as shown in Fig.2. The hardware
of the system is combined by PC front end and high speed
I/O. The front end is designed as an open structure. Through
the high speed information exchange channel, the I/O port is
controlled by PC. And the NC function is carried out by
software. So the hardware is smaller than ever before, and
stronger electromagnetic interference is avoided. All the
functions of the system can be achieved by modules
combination, transplant and extension. As all functions are
controlled by software, there seems to be too many modules,
and the NC system becomes less reliable. In order to avoid
these problems, self-diagnosis technology and fault-tolerant
technique are developed.

Figure 2. The open structure NC system

In the NC systems the vector distribution technique of
reversible interpolation is used. This technique makes the
advance and feedback of the electrode easy, no matter the
machining trajectory is line, arc, ellipse, hyperbola or other
curves. Here, any multiple axis linkage interpolation can be
achieved by two-axis linkage interpolation. Based on the
vector distribution method, the control objects of five-axis
linkage NC system are multilevel nested by the control
object of two-linkage NC, as shown in Fig.3. With the help
of the reversible interpolation algorithm, the NC system can
control the machining trajectory of the electrode precisely.
And that can control the acceleration and deceleration, tool
lifting and wobbling of the electrode precisely too. In five-
axis EDM machine, the U axis is not a real. The purpose of
this design is to achieve the five-axis linkage interpolation.

Figure 3. The principle of six-axis linkage.

2.2. High efficient and precise EDM pulse generator:
In this report, high efficiency and precise EDM pulse
generator and its controlling system have been designed. So
difficult-to-cut materials, such as titanium alloy and
superalloy can be machined efficiently and precisely. Some
difficult-to-cut materials such as alloy and high-temperature
ceramic have poor thermal conductivity. When discharging,
the heat can not emit
easily, and the carbide will deposit easily on the surface of
the electrode. Then the machining can not go on, and the
electrode will be burned. Because they are active materials, a
higher melting point layer may appear during machining.
The layer makes the surface of the part hard and embrittled.
These materials often cohere with the discharging dust
because of the high chemical affinity. So the arc discharge,
secondary discharge and so on would appear during
machining. These make the precise machining becomes
difficult. In terms of these difficulties, three key techniques
are developed:
a. Multi-loop high-efficient and accurate pulse generator
discharge technique.
Based on the low-voltage loop, several other kinds of loops,
that have special function have been designed. By adding
different loops to the low-voltage loop, different kinds of
pulse waves can be achieved.
b. Accurate and rapid discharge detection and control
technique.
The high-speed detection circuit of discharge gap is
designed. By comparing the threshold value of the voltages
and detecting the rising time of discharge current, the
abnormal discharge condition is detected. The work principle
for the improvement of the discharge is: to use the detect
pulse 1 and detect pulse 2 (shown in Fig.4) to check the
rising time of current waveform; if the rising time is too long
or too short, the control measures need to be added. With the
pulse chopped and discharge gap control technique, the
discharge accuracy is controlled. The harmful discharge
states such as arc discharge, secondary discharge, and so on
are eliminated.

Figure 4. The waveforms of the detection circuit

The new techniques make the temperature lower, and reduce
the chance of generating higher melting point film. So the
surface quality of the work piece will be improved.
c. Design the enhancement circuit of capacitance:
Using the enhancement circuit can strengthen the discharge
force, and remove the dust on the work piece. So it improves
the precision of discharge.

III. MACHINING EXAMPLE
The impeller usually works in high temperature and high
velocity. The integral structure of the impeller increases the
processing difficulty while improving the work performance.
Nowadays, the five-axis EDM technology is a good choice to
do this work. A three-dimensional integral impeller has the
characters as follows:
1. The material is difficult to cut. It is usually made of
superalloy or titanium alloy.
2. Its structure is complex. That limits the application
of mechanical machine.
3. It has plenty of twist blades, and the channels are
narrow and twisted.
4. It has a high accuracy requirement for the
dimensional tolerance, surface roughness and
geometric tolerance.
The special machining process that used on the five axis
EDM machine has been designed based on these characters.
IV. ELECTRODE DESIGN
The tool electrode is shaped and reduced according to the
profile of the flow channels to get enough motion space. The
flow channels are formed by feeding the electrode along a
designed path and copying the blade profile. The key to
EDM of the integral shrouded blisk is to search an
interference-free and optimized electrode feeding path.
It is proved that keeping the electrode in the centre of a flow
channel is beneficial for searching an interference-free
electrode feeding path. A new path searching approach called
tangent tracking [3] is studied in this report, which is to make
the electrode in the centre of the flow channel.
a. Electrode feeding path searching:
Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the 5-axis EDM of an
integral shrouded blisk. The electrode path is achieved
through the coordinated motion of the electrode in the X, Y,
Z, C axial directions, and the coordinated motion of the blisk
in the A axial direction. The profile of the blisk flow channel
is chosen as the initial electrode design. To get enough space
for feeding motion, the electrode needs to be reduced in the
circumferential direction and radial direction.

Figure 5. Electrode Design

By decomposing the feeding path planning process into a
number of sub problems, the electrode attitude is adjusted at
each step. The purpose of the attitude adjustment is to make
the tangent vector of the electrode centre curve coincides
with the tangent vector of the flow channel centre curve at
the geometric centre of the flow channel outlet section. If
there is interference between the blisk and electrode in the
tangent tracking process, electrode attitude will be re-
optimized. The flow chart of the tangent tracking method is
show in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Tangent Tracking Method

In fact, the trajectory along which the electrode retreats from
the blisk flow channel is the reverse of the electrode feeding
path. Therefore, the object of path searching is the electrode
retreat motion. Electrode feeding path searching process can
be considered as a multi-stage dynamic programming. The
optimization of electrode attitude at every step can be
regarded as the sub problem of the path searching. The
solution to the whole feeding path searching can be obtained
by the combination of optimal solutions to its sub problems.
The procedure of solving the optimization of the electrode
attitude at one step can be applied to the same sub problems
at other steps. All these characteristics make dynamic
programming a proper method for planning the electrode
feeding path.
According to the geometric features, the flow channel can be
divided into n sections. Similarly, the electrode can thus be
divided into the same number of sections starting from the
feed ending position. Point qbi is the geometric centre of the
flow channel section Sbi , and point qei is the geometric
centres of the electrode section Sei. Non-Uniform Rational
B-Splines (NURBS) are used to fit the centre curve of the
flow channel through qbi and the centre curve of the
electrode through qei.

Figure 7. The location of flow channel centre curve and
electrode centre curve

Take the posture of electrode which the geometric centers
qei meet the geometric centre qbn as the basis of
optimization step divide. At step i , the attitude that the
geometric centers of electrode section meet the geometric
centre of the flow channel outlet section, as shown in Fig. 7.

The unit tangent vector of the electrode centre curve at is
calculated. Similarly, the unit tangent vector of the flow
channel centre curve at point is obtained. In each step, the
unit electrode tangent vector needs to be rotated in C
direction (rotation along the Z axis) and A direction
(rotation along the X axis) to find an electrode-blisk
interference free attitude. Here we take the rotation in C
direction as the example. Its rotation in A direction can be
similarly conducted. In the pre-optimization process,
electrode tangent vector rotates along the Z axis to coincide
with the channel tangent vector.

If there is no interference between the blisk and electrode
after pre-optimization, this attitude can be directly used as
step i in the feeding path searching. Due to the change of the
curvature radius of clisk channel , however, the interference
is likely to occur. the electrode should rotate around the Z
axis centre at point center point of the blisk to find an
electrode blisk interference free attitude in the re-
optimization process. The re-optimization starts from the
preoptimized attitude. The electrode rotates around the Z
axis at that point in the direction which is opposite to that in
the pre-optimization adjustment. Once the electrode is not
interfered with the blisk, the corresponding rotation angle is
noted as theta1. The electrode continues to rotate until the
electrode-blisk interference occurs again, and the
corresponding rotation angle is noted as theta2. After re-
optimization, the unit tangent vector of the electrode centre
curve is thus obtained by rotating an angle of
theta=(theta1+theta2)/2.

This attitude is regarded as the final optimized attitude at
step i. The same procedure for the optimization of electrode
attitude is conducted at other steps. If the re-optimization
fails to find an interference-free electrode feeding path, the
electrode size should be reduced, and the feeding path
planning process is iterated, as demonstrated in the flow
chart of Fig. 6.



V. DISCUSSION
An integral shrouded blisk machining experiment has been
carried out to prove the validity of the tangent tracking
method. The integral shrouded blisk, which has 35
circumferentially equi-spaced flow channels, is made of Ni-
based superalloy GH4169. The tangent tracking method can
plan a interference-free electrode feeding path, Fig. 8
illustrates a series of electrode attitudes on the feeding path
searched by the tangent tracking method.

Figure 8. Electrode feeding path planned with the
tangent tracking method

VI. CONCLUSION
In order to overcome the difficulties of the five-axis linkage
technology, following techniques or equipments have been
studied.

Figure 9. The five-axis EDM machine

The special five-axis EDM NC system;
The high efficiency pulse generator;
Electrode Design.
The testing work proves the practicality and accuracy
preservation of the five-axis EDM machine. And the
performance indicators of the five-axis EDM machine are
achieved.

The tangent tracking method is proposed for searching the
electrode feeding path. The main conclusions are listed as
follows:
(1) The electrode feeding path searching can be considered
as a dynamic programming problem, which consists of a
series of electrode attitude optimization subproblems.
(2) The optimization subproblems can be divided into two
stages: pre-optimization and re-optimization. In the pre-
optimization process, the tangent vectors of the electrode
centre curves is rotated to coincide with that of the flow
channel outlet section. If the electrode interferes with the
blisk, the reoptimization needs to be conducted to find an
interference-free path in the vicinity of the preoptimized
attitude.
The experiment results show that the tangent tracking
method can plan an interference-free feeding path, and
improves the machining efficiency. Moreover, the tangent
tracking method can be extended to 6-axis EDM and used
for other types of integral shrouded blisks.
OTHER SUCCESSFUL CASE FOR THE FIVE-AXIS EDM
MACHINE

Figure 10. The integral turbine blisk sample that was
finished


Figure 11.The processing site of high temperature nickel
base alloy turbine blisk.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to acknowledge with appreciation the sincere
and kind efforts of the persons whose contribution has been
important in this experiment. We would like to thank our
instructor Dr. Sooraj for his valuable support. We also thank
our lab assistants for clearing our doubts.
REFERENCES
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_discharge_machining
[2] Overview on five-axis precision EDM techniques, D.Y. Yang
[3] Electrode feeding path searching for 5-axis EDM of integral
shrouded blisks, X. Liu, X. Kang.