A study on the effect of different vibration-assisted methods in micro-WEDM

In micro electrical discharge machining (μEDM), since the discharge energy is very low and is usually performed by a resistor-capacitor (RC) generator the discharge process is highly complex and unpredictable. In addition, due to low discharge energy the discharge is unstable and the machining efficiency is reduced as a result of poor flushing condition in a very small gap. This greatly affects the productivity and limits micro EDM applications. This paper presents development methods to improve the machining efficiency of a widely accepted non-traditional machining process, micro wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM), using non-ultrasonic vibration. It is found that when vibration is applied to the micro-WEDM process, discharge is much more effective with fewer short circuits. From experiment results, it is observed that greater improvement can be achieved when the vibration is applied to the workpiece rather than to the wire. With vibration applied to the workpiece, machining efficiency can be increased by 2.5 times greater than without vibration and 1.5 times compared to the case vibration is applied to the wire. In addition, there exists an optimum relation between vibration parameters, energy and feedrate such that EDM at a constant feedrate can further improve the machining efficiency.