A critical review on electro-discharge machining of non-conductive materials

Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is a nontraditional machining process known for processing of hard, brittle and difficult-to-machine materials. EDM is precisely known for machining of conductive materials, but recent advancements in material processing techniques and machining technology have shown that there is a great possibility in the machining of non-conductive materials using EDM. Existing researches proposed important processing methods for EDM of non-conductive materials. However, there is a need for a collective study showing the ease, merits and limitations of suggested methods. In a similar direction, this article is aimed at presenting a critical insight on machining of non-conductive materials using EDM. This article is devoted toward exploring the several possibilities of machining non-conductive materials by EDM. Research survey was carried out by collecting research papers using "EDM" and "Non-conductive" materials as the keywords. Research papers were collected from Scopus and web of science from 2008 to 2023. The presented study is expected to help the researchers and practitioners to choose the machining method wisely and effectively to satisfy the EDM of non-conductive materials.