Electrical discharge machining

Pradeep Dixit
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Need for Non-Traditional Machining

• New materials are coming in manufacturing
– Can operate in very high temperature environments
– making through-holes in Gas turbine blades in aerospace applications
– Examples: Ni-Cr super alloys (Inconel 718 – BHN >400)
• Machining of these super alloys (NiCr alloys, Ti, WC) ?
– Very difficult to machine by traditional machining – high tool wear, low material removal rate
• Machining of non-conductive, brittle materials (fused silica, quartz, glass)
– Applications: semiconductors, MEMS, Microfluidics
• New material removal processes have been developed
– Material removal is independent of work-piece hardness
– No direct contact between tool and work-piece

ME338 – Pradeep Dixit 2

 How are NTM methods different ?
Traditional Machining Non-Traditional Machining (NTM)

• Primary source of energy – • Primary source of energy –

Mechanical/friction Electrical, Chemical, Thermal,
Optical
• Material removal
mechanism – shearing • Material removal mechanism –
Chemical, erosion,
• Tool and work piece are in
direct contact • Tool and work piece are often
not in direct contact
• Material removal rate
depends a lot on the • Material removal rate is
hardness of workpiece independent on the hardness
• NTM are used when a
workpiece is too hard to
machine or part shape geometry
is too complex

Classification of NTM methods

Plastic shear Conventional machining
Mechanical Failure
Abrasive powder AJM/WJM
impingement
Brittle fracture
Hammering of Ultrasonic
Removal Mechanisms

abrasive grain machining

Melting, evacuation EDM, ECDM

Thermal
vaporization EBM, LBM, PAM

Electrochemical Electrochemical machining

dissolution

Selective chemical Chemical wet machining

etching

Chemical dry machining

ME338 – Pradeep Dixit 4

 Abrasive jet machining

Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM)

• One of the most popular NTM method used in manufacturing industry
• Based on thermal erosion method
• Workpiece and tool electrode are immersed in a dielectric medium
• Electrical spark is generated between the electrodes
• Workpiece Material is melted at localized spots and washed away through the incoming fluid
flow
 Mechanism of metal removal in EDM (1/3)
• Voltage is applied to the electrodes,
which results in the ionization of dielectric
fluid
• The interelectrode gap becomes
conductive, allowing current to flow from
one electrode to the other in the form of a
spark discharge .

• The spark channel in the first few microseconds has

a very small cross-sectional area resulting in a
correspondingly high current density
• It can be as high as l04~l06 A /cm2.

Mechanism of metal removal in EDM (2/3)

• Due to such high current density,
temperature in the spark channel can be
very high (>5000°C)
• It resulting in the melting and
vaporization of a small amount of material
from the surfaces of both the electrode and
the workpiece at the points of spark
contact

• A rapidly expanding bubble is created in the

dielectric fluid around the spark channel.
 Mechanism of metal removal in EDM (3/3)
• When the electrical pulse is terminated, both
the spark channel and the vapor bubble collapse
• The violent inrush of cool dielectric fluid results
in an explosive expulsion of molten metal from
both the electrode and workpiece surfaces
• It resulting in the formation of a small crater in
the surfaces of the two conductors, solidifying
hollow balls of material, which are removed from
the gap by the fluid.
• The erosion of metal from the cathode can be as
high as 99.5%
• The wear of the anode being kept as low as 0.5%.

Summary of metal removal mechanism in EDM

 Main features of EDM
• Main features in EDM process: • Inter-electrode gap: 10-100 µm.
• Pulsed power supply • Constant gap is maintained by the
• Tool electrode – Cathode servo-motor
• Workpiece – Anode WHY ?? • Applied voltage: 30-300V
• Medium: Dielectric (DI water, mineral oil) • Frequency: 100 Hz – 1 MHz, Duty cycle
• Electrodes: Conductive, high melting point : 20 – 80%
• Easy machinability, allowing easy manufacture of • Electrical spark last about 1µs to 8 ms.
complex shapes. • Resulted Temperature during electric
• Low wear rate, high electrical and thermal spark: > 5000C
conductivity, readily available • Size Removed material :
• Copper, Graphite, Brass • > 2 µm
• Dielectric:
• Cheap, low viscosity, Oxygen free environment
• DI water, Kerosene-based oil

Macro Vs. Micro EDM

Macro Micro
Principle Thermal Material Removal Similar (?)
Equipment
Pulse Generator Mechanical Switch/RC circuit Advanced RC circuit
Dielectric Mineral oil, Deionized water Mineral oil
Flushing External and Internal No flushing
Electrode Material Copper / Graphite Tungsten
Process Parameters
Current 0.5 – 400A 0.1 – 10mA
Voltage 40 – 400V 60 – 120V
Pulse Duration 0.5µs – 8ms ns – µs
Electrode Wear Ratio 1 – 5% 5 – 50%
Surface Roughness 0.8 – 3.1µm 0.07 – 1µm

*Prof. Rajurkar presentation

 RC relaxation circuit in EDM machines

• RC circuit – popular for providing DC

pulse in EDM
• Charging and discharging cycles in EDM • Vo Open circuit voltage,
• Vc charging voltage,
• Charging takes places until dielectric • Vd discharging voltage,
medium breaks down, after that • Rm – machine resistance,
discharging starts • Id- discharge current
• Spark formation and material removal 𝑡
• 𝑉𝑐 = 𝑉𝑜 1 − 𝑒 −𝑅𝐶 , 𝐼𝑐 = 𝐼𝑜 𝑒
−𝑡ൗ
𝑅𝐶
takes place during the discharging of −𝑡𝑑
ൗ𝑅 .𝐶 𝑉𝑐 −𝑡𝑑ൗ
capacitor • 𝑉𝑑 = 𝑉𝑐 𝑒 𝑚 , 𝐼𝑑 = 𝑒 𝑅𝑚.𝐶
𝑅𝑚

RC type generator : EDM during charging

• During charging cycle
 EDM – mechanism during discharging
• During discharging, electrical load from EDM may be assumed a totally resistive (Rm : machine
resistance)
• Current passing through EDM machine :
– Id = discharge current or current flowing through the machine
– Vc = instantaneous capacitor voltage during discharging
– Rm= machine resistance
– Negative sign in front of the derivative of the voltage represents that the Vc is gradually
decreasing during discharging.
• At t = 0 (at start of discharge/initiation of spark), Vc = Vc*, at t = td, Vc = Vd*
• Discharging or the machining current Id

Current pulses in charging/discharging in EDM

Schematic representation of the current pulses during charging and

discharging in EDM process
 Important consideration in EDM
• Amount of material removed depends upon the supplied voltage and thus current
• Melting point of the material affects the material removal rate, however hardness of material
does not matter
•If supplied current is I (in amp), Melting points of workpiece and electrode are is Tm (in°C) and Te
(in°C), then
– Material Removal rate MRR(mm3/min) = (4x104).I / Tm1.23
– Wear rate of electrode W(mm3/min) = (11x103).I / Te2.38
– Wear ratio of workpiece to electrode R = (2.25).(Te/Tm)2.3
• Graphite electrodes are therefore prefered due to their low wear rate, high melting points

Die-sinking EDM Vs Wire-EDM

• Mirror image of tool is transferred into the workpiece in

die-sink EDM
• In Wire EDM, the electrode is a wire that traverses
through the part
• A thin wire of brass, tungsten, or copper is used as an
electrode. Wire diameter > 100 µm
• Deionized water is used as the dielectric.
• A wire travels along a prescribed path, cutting the
workpiece, with the discharge sparks acting like cutting
teeth
 Wire Electrical discharge Machining (W-EDM)

Wire-EDM

Wire

Workpiece Multiple wires

EDM research @IIT B: Tool electrode by wire EDM

• Roughness of the tool electrode surface is affected
by machining current and pulse-on period in wire-
EDM process.
• Medium - deionized water
• Tool materials – Molybdenum wire
• Workpiece: Stainless steel

PDixit et al, “Effect of tool electrode roughness on the geometric characteristics of

through-holes formed by ECDM”, Precision Engineering, 60 (2019) 437–447
 EDM research @IIT B: Single tool electrode by wire EDM

(a) (b) (c) Cavities

200 µm

122µm Craters
5 mm
Micro-cracks

Rough Surface after

0.5 mm wire-EDM

Tool array prepared by wire EDM@IIT Bombay

J Arab et al “Journal of Materials

Processing Tech. 271 (2019) 542–553”

Multi tip tool electrodes

8x 8 array
 Single spark modelling*
Fourier heat conduction equation:

Heat source radius rg (in µm) and heat flux distribution q(r)

(Fc) is the fraction of energy which goes to

cathode from the total energy generated
during individual spark discharge. Typical
value: 0.10-0.25
Flushing efficiency – material removed by dielectric
during pulse off period is assumed to be 100%.
It is difficult to measure. Researchers try to match
the experimental results with the simulated results

SS Joshi, "FEM for single spark in EDM", 46th NAMRC

Conference, USA (2018).

Experimental validation of Single spark EDM model

Material: SS 304

(a) 40A – 22 μs,

(c) 60A – 200 μs

SS Joshi, "FEM for single spark in EDM", 46th NAMRC Conference,

USA (2018).
 Summary of EDM
• Mechanism of material removal - melting and evaporation
• Medium - dielectric fluid, deionized water
• Tool materials – Graphite, Cu, Brass,
• Inter-electrode gap = 100 to 125 µm
• Maximum MRR = 5*103 mm3/min
• Critical parameters - voltage, spark gap, melting, dielectric circulation
• Materials application - all conducting metals and alloys
• Shape application - blind complex cavities, micro-holes for nozzles, through cutting of non-circular
holes, narrow slots
• Cons: surface hardening, only conductive materials