The effect of powder mixed and heated dielectric on drilling performance of electric discharge machining (EDM)

Abstract

In this study, heated silicon oil with added carbon and starch powders was used as dielectric liquid, instead of common hydro-carbon based dielectrics, to obtain better hole surface quality with rotating brass tube electrode in electric discharge machining (EDM). The electro-rheometer tests were conducted to find out the suitable temperature and powder concentration values of the electro-rheological (ER) dielectric under the electric field. Higher workpiece material removal rates (MRR) was obtained in carbon powder added dielectrics than the starch powder added ones for rotating and non-rotating electrodes. The optical microscope observations of the machined hole surfaces indicated that the carbon powder added dielectrics reduced the diameter and depth of the discharge craters, thereby resulting in uniformly distributed and round top peaked surface topography. The starch powder addition to the carbon mixed dielectric further improved the surface quality for both rotating and non-rotating electrodes cases at 30 degrees C and 75 degrees C dielectric temperatures.