Experimental Investigation of Copper-Tungsten Electrode Wear in EDM

Abstract

Copper-tungsten alloy which is widely used in the field of EDM has high melting temperature and excellent electrical and thermal conductivity. Copper tungsten electrodes for electrical discharge dressing of metal-bond wheel were studied, and experiments were conducted to observe their wear performance in this paper. Orthogonal experiment was designed to explore the wear at the edge of and the bottom of electrode with the machining of holes. Thickness of the carbon layer, micro topography and experimental results were analyzed. Low current and big pulse duration can reduce the electrode wear rate. Although carbon on the electrode surface can be wiped out easily, wear rate of copper-tungsten electrode decreases with the increasing in thickness of the carbon at the initial phase. There are fewer cracks and residue presented on the machined surface by microscope.