Abstract
In wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM), tungsten has been generally used as a wire electrode for fine precision machining, because high tension can be loaded. It is, however, very expensive, which leads to high cost of the product. A new brass coated piano wire with high tensile strength is being developed in order to attain high-speed and high-precision machining. Our previous reports clarified that the machining speed using the brass coated piano wire becomes higher than that using the conventional tungsten wire when the thickness and the chemical compositions of coated brass layer are optimum. In addition, higher tension can be loaded to the brass coated piano wire because the tensile strength is almost same as tungsten. In this report, the influence of wire surface oxidization on wire EDM characteristics was experimentally investigated using conventional tungsten wire and brass coated wire. As a result, the machining speed became higher by oxidizing the wire surface.
