Abstract
This paper describes electrical discharge machining (EDM) at a high speed, with a high precision five degrees of freedom (5-DOF) controlled maglev actuator. To machine deep, small holes with a depth more than the stroke of the maglev actuator, a conventional EDM machine having long stroke and the maglev actuator were combined and cooperatively controlled. To avoid abnormal electrical discharge, we proposed two types of driving method for an electrode; jump and circular motions using the maglev actuator. Experimental results show that high speed and high precision adjustment of the distance between a work-piece and the electrode (EDM gap) by the maglev actuator is effective for high speed EDM. Moreover, the jump and circular motions increase the machining speed due to improvement in the ejection of debris and bubbles and decrease in the probability of abnormal electrical discharge.
