Segmented manufacturing of micro-electrode based on EDM and its performance evaluation

Abstract

Micro-EDM is widely used in micro-hole and 3D micro-structures. However, the application of Micro-EDM is limited due to the scarcity of micro-electrodes. Therefore, the preparation of micro-electrodes has been one of the difficult and hot issues in the field of EDM. In this study, EDM is used to make micro-electrodes. In order to ensure the high dimensional accuracy of the micro-electrode, a parametric study is conducted by replicating a copper electrode with a diameter of 1mm to a steel block by the method of segmented manufacturing. The relationships between the drilled cavities on the block and the features on the micro-electrode are established. The effects of machining parameters (current, pulse width and pulse interval) on the response variables (electrode bottom side length, electrode length, material removal rate, surface roughness and side length deviation rate) are investigated. Current and pulse width are found more dominant as compared to other selected process parameters. Using optimized parameters from the parametric study, a copper micro-electrode of 46µm bottom side length and 1773µm length is fabricated. A micro-channel with a length of 1200µm, a width of 85µm and a depth of 35µm was processed on the copper sheet.