Electrical Discharge Machining of Al2O3 Using Copper Tape and TiO2 Powder-Mixed Water Medium

Abstract

Aluminum-based ceramics are used in industry to produce cutting tools that resist extreme mechanical and thermal load conditions during the machining of Ni-based and high-entropy alloys. There is wide field of application also in the aerospace industry. Microtexturing of cutting ceramics reduces contact loads and wear of cutting tools. However, most of the published works are related to the electrical discharge machining of alumina in hydrocarbons, which creates risks for the personnel and equipment due to the formation of chemically unstable dielectric carbides (methanide Al3C4 and acetylenide Al2(C2)3). An alternative approach for wire electrical discharge machining Al2O3 in the water-based dielectric medium using copper tape of 40 µm thickness and TiO2 powder suspension was proposed for the first time. The performance was evaluated by calculating the material removal rate for various combinations of pulse frequency and TiO2 powder concentration. The obtained kerf of 54.16 ± 0.05 µm in depth demonstrated an increasing efficiency of more than 1.5 times with the closest analogs for the workpiece thickness up to 5 mm in height. The comparison of the performance (0.0083–0.0084 mm3/s) with the closest analogs shows that the results may correlate with the electrical properties of the assisting materials.