Experimental Investigation of Drilling Incorporated Electrochemical Discharge Machining

Electrochemical discharge machining (ECDM) is a non-conventional micromachining technology, and is highlighted for non-conductive brittle materials. However, the outcomes of ECDM have many restrictions in application due to limitations on efficiency, accuracy, and machining quality. In this paper, a drilling incorporated ECDM process is presented and analyzed to enhance material removal rate in ECDM drilling process. Incorporating micro-drilling into ECDM significantly increases the rate of material removal, especially in deep hole drilling. As fundamentals of the machining process, material removal mechanisms have been investigated to account for the increment in material removal rate by incorporating micro-drilling. Vibration of tool electrode, induced by a piezo-actuator, was introduced to further enhance material removal rate. Quantitative studies were conducted to determine the appropriate process parameters of drilling incorporated ECDM with tool vibration.