Wear of the tool electrode at simultaneous electrical discharge machining of different materials

• Published in: Procedia CIRP 2020, Vol.95, p.419-424
• Main Authors: Hriţuc, Adelina, Coteaţă, Margareta, Dodun, Oana, Nagîţ, Gheorghe, Slătineanu, Laurenţiu, Rîpanu, Marius Ionuţ, Beşliu, Irina, Mikhailov, Alexander
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: separated by semicolons; Type your keywords here
• ISSN: 2212-8271; 2212-8271
• DOI: 10.1016/j.procir.2020.02.312

During the development of an electrical discharge machining (EDM) process, both the tool electrode and workpiece are affected by reducing their weight. In the case of roughing operations, it is important to have information concerning the material removed from the tool electrode. The problem seems to have interesting aspects when simultaneously machining of workpieces that include two or more different materials with the same electrode. In such a case, the tool electrode could be differently affected in the workpiece zones where there are various materials. To investigate the tool electrode wear when simultaneously EDM of a workpiece that included different materials, experimental research was designed and developed. Thus, a plate-type test sample made of steel and coated with a layer of titanium nitride on the two lateral surfaces was machined using a narrow blade-type tool electrode. Applying other machining conditions, different wears of the tool electrode zones affected by the EDM were observed. By mathematical processing of the experimental results, power type empirical mathematical models able to highlight the influence exerted by selected process input variables on the blade-type tool electrode wear were established. The empirical mathematical models could facilitate the selection of the process input values able to ensure a certain equalizing of the tool electrode wear in the zones where different materials are machined.