Journal of Materials Processing Technology 129 (2002) 30±33

The application of research on powder mixed EDM

in rough machining
W.S. Zhao, Q.G. Meng*, Z.L. Wang
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 421,
West Dazhi Street 92, Harbin 150001, PR China

Abstract

Powder mixed EDM (PMEDM) has a different mechanism from conventional EDM, which can improve the surface roughness and is now
applied in EDM ®nish machining. However, little research work has been carried out to study PMEDM in rough machining. This paper
performs experimental research on the machining ef®ciency and surface roughness of PMEDM in rough machining. The result shows that
PMEDM machining can clearly improve machining ef®ciency at the same time surface roughness by selecting proper discharging parameters,
and can provide reference accordingly for the application of PMEDM machining technology in rough machining.
# 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

Keywords: Powder mixed EDM; Rough machining; Machining ef®ciency; Surface roughness

1. Introduction ensure machining ef®ciency with a certain surface quality

and promote its application in EDM rough machining.
Although EDM machining technology is widely used in
mechanical manufacturing, its low ef®ciency and poor sur-
face quality have been the key problems restricting its 2. Machining mechanism of PMEDM
development. Therefore it is of great importance to improve
the machining ef®ciency and surface quality of EDM tech- Because of the current-conducting micro-powder added
nology. to the working ¯uid, the mechanism of PMEDM machining
Like other machining methods, EDM machining is also has the following characteristics:
divided into two phases: rough machining and ®nish
(1) Enlarged discharging gap: For conventional EDM, the
machining. The ®nish machining phase requires high sur-
relative evenness and the same insulated property of the
face quality, while rough machining phase requires high
work fluid components form even density electric field,
machining ef®ciency with a certain quality. Numerous
and resulted in little initiating abilities of discharge
research results show that powder mixed EDM (PMEDM)
breakdown and small discharge gaps. However, for
machining can distinctly improve the surface roughness and
PMEDM machining, lots of current-conducting micro-
surface quality in the ®nish machining phase and obtain
powders cause electric field aberration in the discharge
nearly mirror surface effects, which has lead to the devel-
gap, as shown in Fig. 1. Under the pressure of gap
opment and application of PMEDM in EDM ®nish machin-
voltage, lots of positive and negative charges gather,
ing [1], yet no research work has been reported on the
respectively at the top and bottom of the powders. The
application of PMEDM machining in rough machining
nearer the point is to the top or bottom, the higher is the
for the improvement of ef®ciency. As PMEDM works with
electric charge density. Then at points a and b between
powder mixed working ¯uid, PMEDM machining has dif-
two nearby powder, where the electric field density is
ferent machining mechanism and results from conventional
the highest, discharge breakdown will firstly occur
EDM machining. Further research on PMEDM's machining
when the electric field density surpasses the break-
mechanism and machining effects in rough machining will
down-resistant capability. Discharge breakdown then
causes a short circuit between the two powder particles
*
Corresponding author. and the redistribution of electric charges. More electric
E-mail address: mengqg@sparkle.hit.edu.cn (Q.G. Meng). charges then gather at points c and d, which leads to the

0924-0136/02/$ ± see front matter # 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

PII: S 0 9 2 4 - 0 1 3 6 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 5 7 0 - 8
 W.S. Zhao et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 129 (2002) 30±33
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of ``series discharge''.
discharge between these two powder and other
powders, resulting in ``series discharge'' and accord-
ingly the discharge breakdown between the electrode
and the workpiece. As the distances between powders
become smaller than the discharge gaps and more
electric charges gather at the vertexes of the powder
than at other points, ``series discharges'' occur easily,
and ``series discharge'' with certainty will cause
discharge through the whole discharge gap. Thus
electric discharge can easily occur in the process of
PMEDM and has enlarged discharge gaps.
(2) Widened discharge passages: At electric discharging,
carriers (ions and electrodes) are accelerated to move to
the anode (electrodes) and the cathode (ions), and
accumulate energy while moving and collide with
medium molecules and micro-particles, this causing
them to gather energy and release more carriers,
resulting in avalanche increase of carriers in the passage
and then the widening of the passage. Apparently, larger
discharge gaps and longer carrier movement routes
imply more carriers and wider discharge passage. Since
the discharge gap is widened in PMEDM machining, its
discharge passage is wider than those of conventional
EDM machining. Additionally, the widened discharge
gaps, which alleviate the pressure of work fluid medium
on the discharge passage and ease the widening of
discharge passage, will also widen the discharge
passage of PMEDM machining.
(3) Evenly distributed and ``large and shallow'' shaped
etched cavities on the machined surface: The widening
of discharge gaps and even distribution of lots of
powders in the discharge gaps reduce the initializing
action of the etched scraps on electric discharge and
effectively prevent intensive discharge, resulting in
even discharge and evenly distributed etched cavities
on the machined surface. And simultaneously, the
widened discharge passage enlarges the discharge heat
influenced area and reduces the discharge density to
form ``large and shadow'' etched cavities on the
machined surface. The comparison of micro-surface
profiles machined by PMEDM and conventional sur-
face profiles by EDM is shown in Fig. 2, which
apparently implies that PMEDM obtains machined
surface with ``large and shadow'' shaped and evenly
31
Fig. 2. Comparison of micro-surface profiles machined by PMEDM and
EDM.
distributed etched cavities while conventional EDM
method obtains machined surfaces with non-even
distributed cavities and sometimes deep holes by
intensive discharge.
Since PMEDM can obtain machined surface with evenly
distributed and ``large and shadow'' shaped etched cavities
with the same discharge energy, this can improve the surface
roughness with the same discharge parameters, which is the
basic reason why PMD-EDM can obtain mirror effects in the
®nish machining phase.
Since PMEDM can obtain small surface roughness with
the same discharge parameters, reverse inference implies
that PMEDM can obtain larger discharge parameters with
the same surface roughness. Enlarged discharge parameter
means enlarged pulse discharge energy and improved
machining ef®ciency, which make it impossible for
PMEDM to improve machining ef®ciency in the rough
machining phase.
3. Experimental research on the rough machining
efficiency of PMD-EDM
Experimental comparison has been made to test the
in¯uencing law of PMEDM on machining ef®ciency com-
pared with conventional EDM machining. Conventional
EDM machining experiments were ®rstly performed with
machine±tool recommended discharge parameters and
accordingly the machining ef®ciency and surface roughness
were measured, and then PMEDM machining was carried
out with the same or different parameters and the measure-
ments of machining ef®ciency and surface roughness.
According to the machining ef®ciency and surface rough-
ness, the in¯uencing law of PMEDM machining on machin-
ing ef®ciency was then found.
The experiments were performed on MD21 numerical
controlled EDM machine with red copper electrode, 45#
steel workpiece and 25 mm working size in diameter. EDM
special working ¯uid from Mobil was used for conventional
EDM machining, and self-made powder mixed working
¯uid was used for PMD-EDM machining the powder of
which is aluminum powder 10 mm in granularity and 40 g/l
in density.
32 W.S. Zhao et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 129 (2002) 30±33
Fig. 3. Comparison of machining efficiency and surface roughness
between PMEDM and EDM.
Fig. 3 shows a comparison of machining ef®ciency and
surface roughness between PMD-EDM and conventional
EDM machining. The machining ef®ciency of PMEDM is
lower than that of conventional EDM, but its surface roughness
is much lower than that of conventional EDM. In PMEDM
machining, the enlarged dischargegap and widening discharge
passage cause much loss of pulse discharge energy in the
discharge gaps, and the enlarged discharge gaps reduce the
ejecting force of discharge on the melted or gasi®ed metal,
which leads to the lower ef®ciency of PMEDM in comparison
with conventional EDM. However, the evenly distributed and
``large and shadow'' shaped etched cavities ensure PMEDM
machining smaller surface roughness.
Because PMEDM and conventional EDM methods have
different machining characteristics, some proper discharge
parameters for the former may not be proper for the latter.
And at the same time, the evaluation of machining ef®ciency
should be done at the same surface roughness. Therefore,
further research work was performed on the in¯uence of the
discharge parameters (pulse width ti and peak current Ip) on
machining ef®ciency and surface roughness.
Fig. 4. Influence of peak current on machining efficiency and surface
roughness.
Fig. 5. Influence of pulse width on machining efficiency and surface
roughness.
Figs. 4 and 5 are, respectively, the machining ef®ciency
and the surface roughness of PMD-EDM with different peak
currents and different pulse widths. From Figs. 4 and 5, the
in¯uencing law of peak current on machining ef®ciency and
surface roughness is similar in traditional EDM and
PMEDM. The machining ef®ciency increases and surface
roughness gets worse as peak current increases. However,
pulse width has different in¯uence on machining ef®ciency
and surface roughness in PMEDM machining from that in
conventional EDM machining. Therefore, in order to
improve machining ef®ciency in PMEDM with certain
surface roughness, a greater peak current and smaller pulse
width should be considered.
The single pulse discharge energy increases with increase
of the peak current, more material will be etched from the
workpiece surface to form large and deep discharge etched
cavities, which can explain the fact that for both PMEDM
and conventional EDM machining, the increase of peak
current will increase the machining ef®ciency and worsen
the surface roughness. When the pulse width reduces, con-
ventional EDM machining with high insulating strength
requires long pulse maintaining time, and too-small a peak
width leads to a low discharge rate, unstable machining and
then reduced machining ef®ciency; but for PMEDM, with
the powder mixed working ¯uid making discharge break-
down easier, and discharge breakdown can occur with small
pulse width, so reducing pulse width causes more discharges
per time unit and resulting in higher machining ef®ciency.
And because of the reduction of single pulse discharge
energy, the depth of the etched cavities is reduced and
smaller surface roughness is obtained with small pulse width
in PMD-EDM machining.
From Figs. 3 and 5, machining ef®ciency in PMEDM can
be highly increased by selecting proper discharge para-
meters (increasing peak current, reducing pulse width) at
similar surface roughness with conventional EDM machin-
ing. In the machining conditions of this experiment, machin-
ing ef®ciency was improved from 2.06 to 3.4 mm3/min with
an increasing rate of 70%.
 W.S. Zhao et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 129 (2002) 30±33 33

4. Conclusions wear, and ef®cient separation of machined scraps from

the powder mixed working ¯uid, should be carried out
With the above study of PMD-EDM machining mechan- before PMD-EDM machining is applied in rough machin-
ism and its machining ef®ciency and surface roughness in ing.
rough machining, conclusion can be drawn as follows:
For further reading see [2,3].
(1) PMD-EDM machining makes discharge breakdown
easier, enlarges the discharge gaps and widens the
discharge passage, and lastly forms evenly distributed
Acknowledgements
and ``large and shadow'' shaped etched cavities.
(2) Because of much loss of discharge energy in the
This study was funded by NSFC (59935110).
discharge gaps and reduction of the ejecting force on
the melted material, the machining efficiency becomes
lower and the surface roughness becomes smaller in
PMEDM machining in comparison with conventional References
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increased by selecting proper discharge parameters
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with better surface roughness in comparison with 92±93.
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Research on PMD-EDM's mirror machining technology and its
Although PMEDM can improve machining ef®ciency surface characteristics, Ph.D. Dissertation, Harbin Institute of
in rough ef®ciency, a series of problems such as electrode Technology, Harbin, China, 2001, p. 10.