Abstract
In micro electrical discharge machining (micro-EDM), the whole discharge process happens in the narrow gap between electrode and workpiece. In this study, the influence of gap width on discharge characteristics was investigated based on the impulse discharge method. With determining the critical breakdown distance firstly, the discharge status under various gap width was classified and analyzed. From the perspective of charged particles in plasma channel and the spark maintenance condition, the reason why two types of spark waveform with different gap voltage exist in micro-EDM was explained. Ignition delay and discharge duration ratio, as two import factors influencing the material removal rate, were also investigated under different gap width. The results indicated that the gap width which is 40 % of critical breakdown distance shows a satisfying performance by the combined consideration of ignition delay and discharge duration ratio under the studied conditions. The morphologies of discharge craters obtained under different gap width were measured and analyzed by atomic force microscope (AFM), which showed that both the diameter and depth of discharge crater are decrescent with the increase of gap width, even under the condition of identical discharge energy.
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