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Powder-mixed multi-channel discharge wire electrical discharge machining

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Abstract

Wire electrical discharge machining (EDM) is the most important approach to cutting difficult-to-machine materials and components with complex shapes in the manufacturing industry. However, the multiple demands for high material removal rate, high surface quality, and low energy consumption require contradictory working conditions and restrict the further improvement of the performance of WEDM. This paper introduced a novel powder-mixed multi-channel WEDM method using the multi-channel discharge effect to meet the conflicting requirements. The multi-channel discharge effect utilizes the equipotential characteristics of the semiconductor powder mixed in the dielectric to disperse discharge energy and therefore provides a feasible solution to resolve the above contradictions. New working principles and machining mechanisms were discovered and verified by the simulation and experimental results. Comparative experiments show that the new powder-mixed multi-channel discharge WEDM method significantly reduced surface roughness and thermal defects while maintained a similar material removal rate as conventional WEDM.

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Funding

The project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51705040), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (Grant No. BK20150255), and Six Talent Peaks Project of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. GDZB148). The first author also acknowledges the financial support by the Australian Research Council (Grant No. DP180100762 and DP210103278).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering, RMIT University, 264 Plenty Rd, Mill Park, Melbourne, VIC, 3082, Australia

    Xiangzhi Wang & Songlin Ding

  2. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Non-traditional Machining, Changzhou Institute of Technology, Changzhou, 210032, China

    Xiangzhi Wang & Hun Guo

  3. College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Mingbo Qiu

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  1. Xiangzhi Wang
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Wang, X., Qiu, M., Guo, H. et al. Powder-mixed multi-channel discharge wire electrical discharge machining. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 119, 6275–6286 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-021-08221-w

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