Electro Discharge Machining of Advanced Engineering Ceramics

Traditional machining processes like turning, milling, and grinding are not efficient to machine hard, tough to machine, materials. Electro Discharge Machining (EDM) may be a solution for such a problem of hard to machine materials. As EDM has various problematic areas during machining such materials, many researchers and manufacturing engineers are trying to overcome these problems so that EDM processes can be used efficiently in modern manufacturing industries. Material removal procedure and the influence of different process characteristics of EDM are still unclear to the researchers. Therefore, to exploit the full potential of EDM in the manufacturing domain, research has been carried out to improve its accuracy and efficiency. Research work carried out with one of the common ceramic materials Alumina (Al₂O₃) has been machined using assisting electrode method. In this study, the influence of peak current, on time and flushing pressure over Material Removed per second (MRR) have been analyzed. From this study, it has been seen that the coating layer on the ceramic surface plays an important role in the machining of Al₂O₃. Peak current (Ip) of 1 A, on time (Ton) of 3 µs and 5 kg/cm² of flushing pressure is the best parametric combination for successful EDM operation on Al₂O₃.