Effect of Width of Kerf on Machining Accuracy and Subsurface Layer After WEDM

Wire electrical discharge machining is an unconventional machining technology that applies physical principles to material removal. The material is removed by a series of recurring current discharges between the workpiece and the tool electrode, and a ‘kerf’ is created between the wire and the material being machined. The width of the kerf is directly dependent not only on the diameter of the wire used, but also on the machine parameter settings and, in particular, on the set of mechanical and physical properties of the material being machined. To ensure precise machining, it is important to have the width of the kerf as small as possible. The present study deals with the evaluation of the width of the kerf for four different metallic materials (some of which were subsequently heat treated using several methods) with different machine parameter settings. The kerf is investigated on metallographic cross sections using light and electron microscopy.