Investigation on Transfer of Insulating Electrode Material with Discharge Pulses

Abstract

 In this study, the transfer of an insulating material from an electrode to a workpiece with discharge pulses is investigated. A method of transferring a conductive material from an electrode to a workpiece has already been developed. However, for an insulating material, it is necessary to give conductivity to an electrode in order to occur discharge. In this report, zinc is used as the medium for the transfer of the insulating material as well as the binder of the electrode. When discharge occurs between the electrode and the workpiece, the electrode material, which is zinc and the insulating material, is transferred to the workpiece. It was expected that zinc would be evaporated by the heat of discharge and that only the insulating material would remain on the surface of the workpiece. In fact, however, it was difficult to remove zinc and a large amount of zinc remained in the layer formed by the discharge. In this report, a method of reducing the amount of zinc in the layer was investigated.