Advanced Machining Processes

Module 3: Machining by Thermal Erosion

Machining by Thermal Erosion: Theory of Electro-discharge Machining
(EDM) and Wire Electrical discharge machining (WEDM) - Working
principle, Processes variables, Pulse generator circuit RC and Controlled
pulse generator tool electrode, dielectric fluid, machining characteristics of
spark eroded surface, characteristics, applications and case studies.
Machining by Electrochemical Erosion: Chemical machining -
Fundamental principle, types of chemical machining, maskants, etchants -
Electro Chemical Machining (ECM) Theory of ECM Working principle,
Mechanism of metal removal, Modelling of ECM, Process characteristics
Advantages, limitations, applications and case studies.
Electro-discharge Machining (EDM)
Fig. Electric Discharge Machining (EDM).
 Electro-discharge Machining (EDM)
• EDM is based on the idea of sparking between two electrical
conductor.
• Whenever sparking takes place between two electrical contacts a small
amount of material is removed from each of the contacts.
• This spark energy in controlled manner is employed for machining of
metals.
• It was found that the sparks of short duration and high frequency
are needed for efficient machining.
• If the discharge is submerged in dielectric, the energy can be
concentrated into a small area.
• It is developed from a relaxation circuit (known as RC circuit) in
which electrodes (tool and workpiece) are immersed in the dielectric
like kerosene, and are connected to the capacitor.
 Working Principle of EDM
• EDM is a thermoelectric process in which heat energy of a spark is used to
remove material from the workpiece.
• Both workpiece and tool should be made of electrically conductive materials.
• A spark of short duration is produced between the two electrodes (tool and
workpiece)
• Location of spark is determined by the narrowest gap between the tool and
workpiece.
• Very short cycle time usually in few micro-seconds (μs).
• Very high sparking frequency around thousands of sparks per second.
• Spark is effective (or spark radius) on very small area.
• Temperature of the area under the spark is very high.
• Therefore, the spark energy is capable of partly melting and partly vaporizing
material from localized area on both the electrodes, i.e; workpiece and tool.
• The material is removed in the form of craters which spread over the
entire surface of the workpiece.
• The cavity produced in the workpiece is approximately the replica of the
tool.
• Therefore to have machined cavity as replica of the tool, the tool wear
should be zero.
• To minimize wear of the tool the operating parameters and polarity
should be selected carefully.
• Particles eroded from the electrodes are known as debris.
• Debris is the mixture of irregular shaped particles (resulting from
resolidification from the molten state) as well as hollow spherical
particles (resulting from the vapour condensation).
https://youtu.be/9h4SjJl2Bfc

https://youtu.be/7uIIq_Ofzgw
• The amount of material eroded from the tool surface is much smaller
than that from the workpiece surface.
• A small gap (even lesser than hundredth of a millimetre) between the
two electrodes is to be maintained to have the spark to occur.
• Motion of a tool towards the workpiece is controlled by the servo
system.
• During EDM, pulsed DC of 80-100 V at approximately 5 kHz is passed
through the electrodes.
• The intense electrical field is generated at narrowest gap due to surface
irregularity.
• Negatively charged particles (electrons) break loose from the cathode
surface and move towards the anode surface under the influence of the
electric field forces.
• During this movement the electrons collide with the neutral molecules
of the dielectric (kerosene, water)
• In this process, electrons are also detached from these neutral molecules
of the dielectric resulting in still more ionization.
• The ionization soon becomes so intense that a very narrow channel of
continuous conductivity is established.
• In this channel, there is a continuous flow of considerable number of
electrons towards the anode and that of ions towards the cathode.
• Their KE is converted into heat energy, hence heating of anode due to
the bombardment of electrons and heating of cathode due to the
bombardment of ions, take place.
• Thus, it ends up in a momentary current impulse resulting in discharge
which may be an arc or a spark.
• The spark energy raises the localized temperature of the tool and
workpiece to high value.
• This increased temperature results in either in melting, or melting and
vaporization of a small amount of material from the surface of both
electrodes at the point of spark contact.
• In fact, due to evaporation of dielectric the pressure in the plasma
channel rises to a very high value (say, 200 atm.) and it prevents the
evaporation of superheated metal.
• As soon as the off time of a pulse starts, the pressure drops
instantaneously allowing the superheated metal to evaporate.
• The amount of material eroded from the workpiece will depend upon the
contributions (in the form of KE) of electrons.
• The amount of material eroded from the tool will depend upon the
contributions (in the form of KE) of ions.
• The polarity normally used is straight (or normal polarity) in which the
tool is -ve and workpiece is +ve, while in reverse polarity the tool is +ve
and workpiece is negative.
• Movement of the tool towards the workpiece is controlled by a
servomechanism.

• The sparking takes place over the entire surface of the workpiece
hence the replica of the tool is produced on the workpiece.

• Usually, a component made by EDM process is machined in two

stages, viz rough machining at high MRR with poor surface finish, and
finish machining at low MRR with high surface finish.
 EDM Machine
Any EDM machine tool (m/t) has four major components
• Power supply
• Dielectric system
• Tool (electrode) and workpiece
• Servosystem
 Power Supply
• Power supply converts AC into pulsed direct current (DC) used to
produce sparks between tool and workpiece.
• Solid state rectifier is used to convert AC into DC.
• A fraction of DC power is used to generate a square wave signal with the
help of a digital multi-vibrator oscillator.
• This signal triggers a bank of power transistors that act as high speed
switches to control the flow of remaining DC power.
• It creates high power pulsed output responsible for generating sparks
between the electrodes.
• For a given input voltage, a spark can be generated only at or below a
certain gap between the tool and workpiece.
• EDM power supply senses the voltage between the electrodes and then
sends the relevant signals to the servosystem, which maintains the
desired gap value between the electrodes.
• Power supply should also be able to control the parameters like voltage,
current, duration and frequency of a pulse, duty cycle (the ratio of on-
time to pulsetime), and electrode polarity.

• EDM power supplies are also equipped with cut-off protection circuit.
Electrodischarge machining machine
 Dielectric System
• It consists of dielectric fluid, reservoir, filters, pump, and delivery
devices.
• Properties of dielectric fluid
it should:
1) Have high dielectric strength (i.E; remain electrically non
conductive until the required breakdown voltage between the
electrodes is attained),
2)Take minimum possible time to breakdown (i e ignition delay
time) once the breakdown voltage is reached,
3)Deionize the gap immediately after the spark has occurred,
4)Serve as an effective cooling medium,
5)Have high degree of fluidity
• The fluids commonly used as dielectric are transformer oil, paraffin oil,
kerosene, lubricating oils, and deionized water
• Deionized water gives high MRR, provides more effective cooling
medium but also causes high electrode wear rates and corrosion.
 Dielectric Fluids
• The main functions of the dielectric fluid are to flush the eroded particles
from the machining gap, provide insulation between the electrode and
the workpiece, and cool the section that is heated by the discharging
effect.
• For most EDM operations, kerosene is used with certain additives that
prevent gas bubbles and deodorizing.
• Other dielectric fluids include aqueous solutions of ethylene glycol,
water in emulsions, and distilled water.
• Flushing of the dielectric plays a major role in the maintenance of stable
machining and the achievement of closer dimensional tolerance and good
surface quality
• Inadequate flushing promotes arcing, decreases electrode life, and
increases the production time.
• In the majority of EDM applications, the dielectric fluid is introduced,
under pressure, through one or more passages in the tool and is forced to
flow through the gap between the tool and the workpiece.
• Flushing holes are generally placed in areas where the cuts are deepest.
 Dielectric Fluids
• Normal flow is sometimes undesirable because it produces a tapered
opening in the workpiece.
• Reverse flow is useful in machining deep cavity dies, where the taper
produced in the case of the normal flow mode is reduced.
• The gap is submerged in filtered dielectric, and instead of pressure being
applied at the source, a vacuum is used.
• With clean fluid flowing between the workpiece and tool, there is no
side sparking and, therefore, no taper is produced.
• Other methods of dielectric feeding include immersed, jet, and sweeping
nozzle flushing modes.
 Electrodes in EDM
• In EDM both tool and workpiece are electrodes, but tool is only
considered as electrode.
• The electrode material should be easily machinable, have low wear rate,
good conductor of electricity and heat, cheap, and readily available.
• Tool Materials in EDM:
• Graphite (easily machinable, low wear rate, and high conductivity),
copper
• Brass (highly stable and relatively low wear rate)
• Copper tungsten (low wear rate, expensive, and can be easily
shaped)
• Cast aluminium,
• Copper boron,
• Silver tungsten.
 Electrodes in EDM
• However, copper and graphite are more commonly used because they
can be easily machined.

• A graphite electrode with finer grains results in lower TWR (Tool

Wear Rate), better surface finish, and higher MRR , but it is brittle.

• Tool wear is more at the corners/edges than the rest of the tool
 Electrode wear in EDM
• Electrode wear in EDM has many forms, such as end wear, side wear,
corner wear, and volume wear
• Electrode wear depends on a number of factors associated with the
EDM, like voltage, current, electrode material, and polarity.
• The change in shape of the tool electrode due to the electrode wear
causes defects in the workpiece shape.
• Electrode wear has even more pronounced effects during
micromachining applications.
 Servo system
• A servo system is used to maintain a predetermined gap between tool
and workpiece.
• Gap voltage sensor in power supply sends signals to the servo system.
• As soon as it senses that the gap between the electrodes has been bridged
by some electrically conductive material, a signal will be sent to the
servo system to reverse its direction.
• The servo system will keep the tool reciprocating towards the workpiece
until the dielectric fluid flushes the gap, and clears it off the electrically
conductive material.
• If the dielectric flushing system is inefficient in cleaning the cutting gap,
the machining cycle time will be long and vice versa.
• Two of the requirements of the servo system are sensitivity for small
movements, and enough power to overcome weight of ram, electrode,
and flushing forces.
 Electrode Refeeding
• Tool wear during EDM also reduces length of the tool.
• For accurate machining, the reduced length must be compensated;
otherwise the length of each successive hole to be drilled will be shorter
than the desired one.
• Simple way to overcome this problem is to estimate the amount by
which the electrode length is reduced after drilling each hole and, in
turn, to increase the infeed by this amount each time.
• Another method used is electrode refeeding in which the tool, after
drilling a hole, is brought back every time to the reference point
wherefrom the depth of drilling is measured.
• The electrode refeeding can be done manually or automatically.
 Process Variables
• An increase in current and spark voltage results in increased MRR as
well as increased value of surface roughness.
• An increase in spark frequency results in an improved surface finish.
• The inter-electrode gap (12-50 μm) is determined by the gap current and
gap voltage.
• A decrease in the electrode gap results in lower MRR, better surface
finish, and higher accuracy.
• An increase in pulse duration decreases MRR as well as deteriorates
surface finish.
• Copper tools, in general, yield better surface finish as compared to
brass.
• Use of water as dielectric makes the EDM process more safe (ie;
without any risk of fire or explosion).
• In case of deep electric discharge machining, the use of water as
dielectric in place of mineral oil has shown improved results
 Layers in EDM
• Microscopic study of the machined components reveals three kinds of
layers, e g recast layer, heat affected zone (HAZ), and converted layer
• Re-cast layer
• If molten material from the workpiece is not flushed out quickly, it
will resolidify and harden (as a martensite) due to cooling effect of
the dielectric, and gets adhered to the machined surface upto 2.5 to
50 μm . It is extremely hard (65 HRC) and brittle. The surface is
porous and may contain micro cracks. Such surfaces should be
removed before using these products.
• Heat affected zone
• HAZ is approximately 25 μm thick. Heating, cooling and diffused
material are responsible for the presence of this zone. Thermal
residual stresses, grain boundary weaknesses, and grain boundary
cracks are some of the characteristics of this zone.
• Conversion zone (or converted layer) is identified below the HAZ and
is characterized by a change in grain structure from the original
structure.
Parameters affecting EDM performance
 Applications
• EDM can be employed to machine any material (hard, tough, brittle,
etc) provided it has some minimum electrical conductivity
• The manufacture of hardened steel dies is the field of application other
than aerospace, automobile, tools, and machine tool components.
• Making through cavities, dies and miniature holes.
• Making components for plastic injection moulding
• Edm can be used for making dies for moulding, casting, forging,
stamping, coining, forming, extruding, wire drawing,
• It is employed for tiny holes, orifices (say, 50 jam) and fragile features
(micro sized slots).