Water-in-oil nanoemulsion dielectric for both rough and finishing electrical discharge machining

Abstract

The modern industry which widely utilized sinking electrical discharge machining (EDM) with kerosene has many problems including low processing efficiency, unsafety, unfriendly environmental impact, and poor machined surface accompanying with recast layer. In this paper, a new water-in-oil (W/O) nanoemulsion dielectric is proposed to overcome these shortcomings of conventional sinking EDM. The machining performance and mechanism of sinking EDM using W/O nanoemulsion are investigated in both rough and finishing machining by comparing with kerosene. The main characteristic parameters for evaluating machining performance, including material removal rate (MRR) and relative electrode wear rate (REWR) in rough machining, and machined surface quality in finishing machining are studied. Compared with kerosene, using W/O nanoemulsion as a dielectric in sinking EDM, a nearly 34 times higher MRR and a relatively lower REWR are obtained in rough machining, and a better machined surface with no recast layer is attained in finishing machining.