Investigation and simulation of ultrasonic vibration electrical discharge milling in gas

Ultrasonic Vibration Electrical Discharge Machining (UEDM) in gas, an evolution of EDM in gas, is well established for producing complex 3D shaped cavities efficiently and shows great potential for applications. Combining UEDM in gas and ED-Milling, a novel technology, ultrasonic vibration electrical discharge milling (UED-Milling) in gas is proposed since the technology has a good many of advantages such as environmentally-friendly dielectric, high Material Removal Rate (MRR), especially low Tool Wear Rate (TWR). Due to the similarity between laminated manufacturing in RPM and UED-Milling in gas, laminated removal manufacturing is introduced into UED-Milling in gas. According to laminated machining principle in RPM and the distinctness in the machining features between UED-Milling in gas and ED-Milling, pertinent slicing strategy and tool electrode compensation strategy are developed. A virtual machining system for UED-Milling in gas, consisting of NN module and process simulation module, is developed by Visual C++ in the Windows environment to lay a foundation for its latter process planning.