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Influence of helical electrode and its structure on EDM small hole machining

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Abstract

Although helical electrodes have been proven to improve the EDM (electrical discharge machining) speed of small holes, there are few studies on the morphological characteristics of the machined small holes and the influence of electrode structures. In this paper, the influence of the helical electrode structure on the machining effect is studied by the method of orthogonal experiment, and the internal mechanism of the influence of the helical electrode on the machining is explained by the method of CFD (computational fluid dynamics) simulation. The results show that the larger depth and width of the helical groove and the helix angle of 60° are beneficial to increase the machining speed and reduce the relative loss rate, and at the same time, avoid serious defects in the small hole morphology. These conclusions provide a valuable reference for future researchers to choose the reasonable structure of the helical electrode, which is of great significance.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (grant no. 52175390).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Micro-Systems and Micro-Structures Manufacturing of Ministry of Education, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, Heilongjiang, China

    Yizhou Hu, Han Wang & Zhenlong Wang

  2. School of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, Heilongjiang, China

    Yizhou Hu, Han Wang & Zhenlong Wang

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  1. Yizhou Hu
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  2. Han Wang
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  3. Zhenlong Wang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Yizhou Hu, Han Wang, and Zhenlong Wang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Yizhou Hu, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zhenlong Wang.

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Hu, Y., Wang, H. & Wang, Z. Influence of helical electrode and its structure on EDM small hole machining. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 123, 3437–3453 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-022-10488-6

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