Cutting Speed of Electric Discharge Machining for SiC Ingot

Abstract

A new method based on electric discharge machining (EDM) was developed for cutting a silicon carbide (SiC) ingot. The EDM method is a very useful technique to cut hard materials like SiC. By cutting with the EDM method, kerf loss and roughness of sample are generally smaller than those obtained by cutting with a diamond saw. Moreover, the warpage is smaller than that by the diamond saw cutting, and the cutting speed can be 10 times faster than that of the diamond saw at the present time. We used wires of 50 mm and 100 mm diameters in the experiments, and the experimental results of the cutting speed and the kerf losses are presented. The kerf loss of the 50 mm wire is less than 100 mm, and the cutting speed is about 0.8 mm/min for the thickness of a 6 mm SiC ingot. If we can maintain the cutting speed, the slicing time of a 2 inches diameter ingot would be about seven hours.