2009 Volume 17 Issue 2 Pages 69-76
Electrical discharge machining is a machining method in which electrical energy is converted to thermal energy, by which metal is melted and explosively removed. Because of the use of explosive energy there are many unstable factors,which often result in variations in dimensions and roughness of machined surfaces. This study measured the energy consumed in the machining process, on the theory that wastefully consumed energy had been converted to wasteful work, with the expectation that an improvement in energy utilization efficiency would lead to the solution of general quality problems of electrical discharge machining. The amount of current consumed and the amount of material removed were evaluated as generic functions. As expected, improvements in both energy efficiency and product quality were obtained, showing that an evaluation based on generic functions and focused on energy conversion is effective in electrical discharge machining, just as electric power evaluation has proven effective for other cutting processes. As the reproducibility of the gain of the S/N ratio was low in the evaluation of current consumption over time, however, there are still problems to be solved in the treatment of current values.
