MICRO ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE MACHINING DEPOSITION IN AIR

A new deposition method is described using micro electrical discharge machining （EDM） to deposit tool electrode material on workpiece in air. The basic principles of micro electrical discharge deposition （EDD） are analyzed and the realized conditions are predicted. With an ordinary EDM shaping machine, brass as the electrode, high-speed steel as the workpiece, a lot of experiments are carried out on micro EDD systematically and thoroughly. The effects of major processing parameters, such as the discharge current, discharge duration, pulse interval and working medium, are obtained, As a result, a micro cylinder with 0.19 mm in diameter and 7.35 mm in height is deposited. By exchanging the polarities of the electrode and workpiece the micro cylinder can be removed selectively. So the reversible machining of deposition and removal is achieved, which breaks through the constraint of traditional EDM. Measurements show that the deposited material is compact and close to workpiece base, whose components depend on the tool electrode, material.

Micro Electrical Discharge Machining Deposition in Air for Fabrication of Micro Spiral Structures

Micro electrical discharge machining（EDM） deposition process is a new micro machining method for fabrication of metal micro structures. In this process, the high level of tool electrode wear is used to achieve the metal material deposition. Up to now, the studies of micro EDM deposition process focused mainly on the researches of deposition process, namely the effects of discharge parameters in deposition process on the deposition rate or deposition quality. The research of the formation of micro structures with different discharge energy density still lacks. With proper conditions and only by the z-axis feeding in vertical direction, a novel shape of micro spiral structure can be deposited, with 0.11 mm in wire diameter, 0.20 mm in outside diameter, and 3.78 mm in height. Then some new deposition strategies including angular deposition and against the gravity deposition were also successful. In order to find the forming mechanism of the spiral structures, the numerical simulation of the transient temperature distribution on the discharge point was conducted by using the finite-element method（FEM）. The results show that there are two major factors lead to the forming of the spiral structures. One is the different material removal form of tool electrode according with the discharge energy density, the other is the influenced degree of the movement of the removed material particles in the discharge gap. The more the energy density in single discharge is, the smaller the mass of the removed material particles is, and the easier the movements of which will be changed to form an order tendency. The fine texture characteristics of the deposited micro spiral structures were analyzed by the energy spectrum analysis and the metallographic analysis. It shows that the components of the deposited material are almost the same as those of the tool electrode. Moreover the deposited material has the brass metallic luster in the longitudinal profile and has compact bonding with the base material. This research is useful to understand the micro-process of micro EDM deposition better and helpful to increase the controllability of the new EDM method for fabrication of micro structures.