Efficiency improvement in electrical discharge machining (EDM) of constant section cavity based on experimental study and numerical calculations

Electrode jump motion is applied to most of the electrical discharge machining (EDM) machine to remove debris from machining gap. The time consumption of one consecutive-pulse discharge process between two adjacent electrode jump motions is named electrode machining time. If the two parameters can be timely adjusted to the optimal values during machining, the efficiency will be obviously improved. However, the complicated flow field of the machining gap that contains kerosene, debris, and bubbles makes it difficult to determine the optimal values of electrode machining time and jump height. This research proposes a strategy to solve this problem. By detecting the voltage and current signals between electrode and workpiece, the normal discharge frequency and abnormal discharge ratio were calculated to determine the optimal electrode machining time. Then, the optimal electrode jump height was calculated through a model which simulates the gap flow field in EDM. Experimental results show that the proposing strategy evidently improves the EDM efficiency.