Development of a 5-DOF Controlled, Wide-Bandwidth, High-Precision Maglev Actuator for Micro Electrical Discharge Machining

This paper describes a five degrees of freedom (5-DOF) controlled, wide-bandwidth, high-precision maglev local actuator to maintain a suitable distance between an electrode and the workpiece for micro electrical discharge machining (EDM). The actuator is sufficiently compact to be attached to conventional electrical discharge machines. The maglev actuator possesses a positioning resolution of the order of sub-micrometer and micro-radian, a bandwidth greater than 100 Hz in the 5-DOF directions, and a positioning stroke of 2 mm in the thrust direction. The maglev actuator can be levitated stably and positioned precisely, even under electrical discharge conditions. The use of the maglev actuator could increase the machining speed for Phi 1 mm holes by 21.8%, compared with the conventional EDM.