Field Induced Jet Micro-EDM

Abstract

Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is of the potential of micro/nano meter scale machining capability. However, electrode wear in micro-EDM significantly deteriorates the machining accuracy, thus, it needs to be compensated in process. To solve this problem, a novel micromachining method, namely field induced jet micro-EDM, is proposed in this paper, in which the electrical field induced jet is used as the micro tool electrode. A series of experiments were carried out to investigate the feasibility of proposed method. Due to the electrolyte can be supplied automatically by the capillary effect and the electrostatic field, it is not necessary to use pump or valves. The problem of electrode wear does not exist at all in the machining process because of the field induced jet will be generated periodically. It is also found that the workpiece material can be effectively removed with a crater size of about 2 micrometer in diameter. The preliminary experimental results verified that the field induced jet micro-EDM is an effective micromachining method.