Study on Factors Determining Limits of Minimum Machinable Size in Micro EDM

This paper describes an investigation on factors determining the limits of the minimum machinable diameter of micro rods obtained by micro EDM. Possible factors which influence the limits are discharge crater size, depth of heat affected zone, residual stress, and material micro-structure. In this paper, the influences of residual stress and material micro-structure were especially examined. For the negative effects of residual stress, both residual stress already present prior to machining and residual stress generated by machining itself were investigated using tungsten and cemented tungsten carbide as micro-rod workpiece materials. To determine the effects of material micro-structure, the influence of tungsten carbide grain size on the limits of minimum machinable diameter of cemented tungsten carbide rods was investigated. Comparing the limits between poly-crystal tungsten and mono-crystal tungsten, it was found that micro-machining characteristics were affected significantly by the anisotropy of the mono-crystal tungsten.