Technology development for EDM using statistical analysis of arcing information

For the practical use of sinking EDM several technological parameters have to be adjusted in order to ensure secure and efficient working conditions. These are parameters determining the electrical impulse characteristics, parameters influencing the gap-width controller and parameters affecting the flushing mechanism. The final accuracy and surface quality is defined by these technological parameters. To obtain usable parameter-combinations, fitting to the intended EDM-application, extensive technological experiments must be carried out. Usually the producer of the ED-machine has done these experiments in advance for the most common applications. These technological data is normally offered to the user in the form of a database. Own experiments must be performed, if the users application does not fit to these predefined technological data sets. This paper proposes a simplified strategy for the implementation of these technological experiments. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.