A study of ultrasonically aided micro-electrical-discharge machining by the application of workpiece vibration

In this paper the authors present a new combined method of ultrasonic and electrical-discharge machining. The most noteworthy feature of the method is that the ultrasonic transducer does not vibrate the tool, as in traditional ultrasonic machining, but vibrates the workpiece. Experimental results show that the workpiece vibration induced by ultrasonic action has a significant effect on the performance of the micro-EDM process. Experimental results show that the efficiency and the aspect ratio of the hole of the ultrasonic-aided micro-EDM are noticeably increased.