Study of the effects of tool longitudinal oscillation on the machining speed of electrochemical discharge drilling of glass

In this study, longitudinal oscillation applied to the cathode electrode during the electrochemical discharge micro drilling of glass and the effects of electrolyte flushing alteration in both discharge and hydrodynamic regimes of the process have been investigated. In this regard, numerous sets of experiments have been conducted using different vibration frequencies and amplitudes. In addition, two geometrically different tools including cylindrical rod and micro drill were used as machining electrode (cathode). In the case of cylindrical rod, two types of longitudinal waveforms including square and sinusoidal ones were applied to the tool. The experiments were resulted in a noticeable improvement in material removal rate (MRR) using square waveform and a slight improvement in the case of sinusoidal waveform. Moreover, the obtained MRR by means of vibrating micro drill has been compared with those achieved by non-vibrating one in several oscillation frequencies and amplitudes. The results showed that the vibration of the micro drill cannot further improve the electrolyte flushing and MRR in comparison with non-vibrating one because of the inherent electrolyte flushing in micro drill through its flutes which is constant in vibrating and non-vibrating cases.