Search

Generally, all insulating materials were regarded as the non machinable workpiece for the electrical discharge machining (EDM) method. About twenty years ago, many insulating ceramics turned to the machinable materials for EDM using the assisting electrode method which was proposed by our research group. The machining mechanism was already explained with the surface adhesion phenomena [1]. In this process, many unstable discharge phenomena occurred such as concentrate, short circle and long pulse. It was clarified that they generated frequently on the high electrical resistance surface. The EDMed surface became rough and uneven on the unstable discharged area. In this paper, to obtain the good and even EDMed surface on the large removal area same as small area machining for Sinking-EDM, the effects of electrode size and shape were investigated. Considering the path of discharge supply energy on the high resistivity surface, new machining method was proposed which was named as the scanning machining method, and the ability of this method for practical use was confirmed with Si3N4 insulating ceramics. Using the new proposal method, better surface roughness and the sharp corner edge shape could be machined on the large area EDMed surface.

The miniaturization of mechanical components with complex shapes is a great challenge in emerging applications. Silicon nitride (Si3N4) ceramics are excellent candidates for such applications due to their outstanding mechanical, thermal, and tribological properties. However, they are difficult to machine using normal mechanical machining methods. If the material were electrically conductive, electrical discharge machining (EDM) could be applied to produce precise and complex shapes. In this paper, in order to investigate the effects of electrical conductivity on the EDM characteristics, several carbon nanostructure composite materials are fabricated and EDMed using the assisting electrode method proposed by the current authors. The performance of the process is evaluated as a function of the carbon nanostructure content and type. The former is separately selected to be close to the electrical percolation threshold (0.9 vol.% and 5.3 vol.% for carbon nanotube (CNT) and graphene Nano platelet (GNP) composites, respectively), and well above that limit (5.3 vol.% and 20.6 vol.%), where electrical conductivities on the order of 10 and 100 S·m-1are attained for CNTs and GNPs-based nanocomposites, respectively. In addition, bare Si3N4 specimens are also tested. Material removal rate, electrode wear ratio, and surface roughness of the machined pieces are analyzed for all testing conditions.

This paper describes the cutting process of a 0.5mm thickness polycarbonate (PC) worksheet stacked on another 0.5mm thickness PC underlay by an adhesive tape layer. As the first investigation, the cutting line force of the two-line blade (90/30deg.) on the laminated PC sheet was measured with a load cell and the sheared profile of the worksheet was observed by a CCD camera in order to reveal the effect of the time delay of the ultrasonic blade excitation on the deformation flow of the worksheet. The profile parameters such as the inclination angle, elevation angle and necked height of sheared section were observed with respect to the blade excitation patterns by varying the delayed time. Secondarily, in order to investigate the effect of the excitation-duty rate on the profile parameters of the sheared zone, two kinds of ultrasonic-excitement patterns were applied to the laminated PC sheet by varying the duty rate. Through the two experiments, it was revealed that both, the positioning control in the case of the time delay and the power density control in the case of the duty ratio were superior for varying the profile parameters of sheared zone.

A stainless steel (SUS 304) was machined by Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) with a sialon and chromium electrode. According to the EDMed conditions, the deformed stainless steel surface turned to the coated surface with an electrode components. The following experimental factors were investigated to produce the modified surface: electrode polarity, work atmosphere, peak current, pulse duration and duty factor. In the suitable worked conditions, the modified layer had good corrosion and wear resistance.