Electrical Discharge Machining for Complex Cavity with a Porous Electrode

In die-sinking EDM processing of deep complex cavities, gap status is easy to be deteriorated because of the hardness of debris evacuation. To address this problem, a kind of porous material was applied as the tool electrode. The porous material was prepared by the way of high-temperature sintering of copper particles. With a proper sintering parameters setting, a porous electrode, in which copper particles connect with each other tightly, is able to be fabricated according to a graphite mould. The porous electrode also has a high porosity such that liquid flow channels are formed and the distributed multi-hole inner-flushing can be achieved. A complex porous electrode for the machining of a deep, complex, and semi-enclosed cavity was prepared, and the EDM experiment was carried out. The experimental results showed that the roughing machining efficiency was raised significantly, which therefore revealed a strong capability of porous electrode in complex cavity machining. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.