A study on pulse control for small-hole electrical discharge machining

Small-hole EDM has a problem of debris evacuation from the narrow gap between the electrode and workpiece. The presence and difficulty in evacuating the debris formed during an erosion process limit the achievable aspect ratio. To address the problem of debris accumulation, a pulse generator, which is able to shut off harmful pulses and to apply high discharge energy pulses, is developed. A FPGA chip is used as the master controller for the determination of pulse discharge status and MOSFET switching. A series of experiments are carried out to examine the machining performance by shutting off harmful pulses and applying high discharge energy pulses. The experimental results show that the efficiency of small-hole drilling is improved and the aspect ratio is increased.