Bubble flushing effect in micro EDM drilling and its relation with debris

Abstract

In micro electrical discharge machining (EDM) drilling with a liquid dielectric, the bubble flushing effect is significant to the dielectric exchange and debris evacuation. Clarifying its mechanism is critical to guild the machining and avoid the deterioration of machining environment, which is a common problem in deep hole drilling with micro EDM. However, the investigation of bubble flushing is always disturbed by debris, which affects bubble production through disturbing the discharge process, because the debris is always conductive as a byproduct of metal materials. In this paper, the bubble flushing effect is systematically investigated from the in situ observation to statistical analysis to clarify the driven force for bubble movement or escape in the narrow gap and assess the evolution of bubble flushing effect with increasing hole depth. Moreover, the influence of debris on the bubble flushing effect is quantitatively analyzed through the contrast experiments in single crystal SiC and stainless steel SUS304 (SS304). It is confirmed in this paper that the debris of SiC has nearly no effect on the discharge due to its special material property. The visible and quantitative investigations reveal the nature bubble flushing effect in micro EDM drilling. The contrast analysis of bubble flushing effect under two cases (with/without influence of debris) clarifies how bubble and debris affect one another and their influences on the drilling process. This study provides new insights into the mechanism of micro EDM drilling and benefits to optimize the actual machining processes for the industry and manufacturer.