Experimental investigations on optimizing manufacturing parameters for electrospark deposition diamond wire saw

The third generation of superhard semiconductor materials, represented by single-crystal SiC, is used widely in microelectronics due to their excellent physical and mechanical properties. However, their high hardness and brittleness have become bottlenecks in their development. A diamond wire saw (DWS) has become the mainstream tool for sawing hard and brittle crystal materials. However, the diamond abrasive is consolidated on the core wire through resin or electroplated nickel, and the holding strength is not high. When sawing superhard crystal materials, the efficiency is low. To improve the sawing efficiency of superhard crystal materials, it is of great significance to improve the wear resistance of the wire saw and the holding strength of abrasive particles. Electrospark deposition (ESD) can deposit electrode materials on the substrate with low heat input to achieve metallurgical bonding between metal materials. It can effectively improve the gripping strength of the abrasive grains. The sawing ability of the wire saw to make the consolidated DWS by the ESD process. In this paper, ESD equipment was designed according to the characteristics of the ESDDWS process. The discharge gap size and electrode consumption are monitored in real time by a single-chip microcomputer (SCM). Orthogonal experiments were carried out for the two motion modes. The effects of process parameters, such as (A) grain size, (B) abrasive content, (C) pulse duration time, (D) compacting pressure, (E) current, (F) electrode diameter, (G) pulse interval time, (H) reciprocating times, and (I) wire feed speed, on the quality of ESDDWS were analyzed. Through extreme difference analysis (EDA), the optimal parameter combinations of ESDDWS were obtained. In motion mode 1, a combination of grain size W10, abrasive content 1 wt%, pulse duration time 20 mu s, compacting pressure 400 MPa, current 19 A, electrode diameter 3 mm, and pulse interval time 2 ms can obtain the optimal value of the number of deposition points and protrusion abrasive particles at the same time. The sequence of manufacturing parameters affecting the two indicators is F > A > G > E > B > D > C. In motion mode 2, the combination of grain size W40, abrasive content 4 wt%, pulse duration time 20 mu s, compacting pressure 300 MPa, current 23 A, electrode diameter 3 mm, reciprocating times 1, and wire feed speed 2 mm/step can obtain the optimal value of the number of deposition points and protrusion abrasive particles at the same time. The sequence of manufacturing parameters affecting the two indicators is C > I > F > E > B > H > D > A.