The Influence of Edm Parameters When Micro- Hole Drilling of Tungsten Carbide (original) (raw)

Tungsten carbide is one of the essential materials used in carbide dies, cutting tools and components under erosion. Although Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) is suitable for handling this material, it is not ideal for micro-hole machining due to its hardness property. The purpose of this study is to describe the characteristics of EDM micro-hole tungsten carbide using Sodick 3-axis die sinking machine with 0.5mm diameter copper as an electrode. In the current study, the effectiveness of the EDM process was evaluated in terms of material removal rate (MRR), electrode wear rate (EWR) and diameter overcut. Design of Experiment (DOE) method has been adopted and findings on the influence of the process parameters, namely peak current (I p), pulse on time (t i) and polarity (ve) over MRR, EWR and diameter overcut is presented in this paper. The process employs different range of peak current (1.5, 3.0(A)), pulse on time (3.2, 6.4 (μs)) and polarity ((+ve), (-ve)). Experimental result...