Basic study on pulse generator for micro-EDM

An RC pulse generator can easily generate a pulse on-time as short as a several dozen nanoseconds in micro-electro-discharge machining (micro-EDM), but its discharge frequency is low due to the time needed to charge the capacitor in micro-EDM, which has a strong negative effect on the pulse generator's working efficiency. Therefore, a new transistor-type isopulse generator has been developed for micro-EDM in this research. Evaluation of the machining characteristics proved that the transistor-type isopulse generator is suitable for micro-EDM. The experimental results reveal that the transistor-type pulse train generator is unsuitable for micro-EDM due to its low removal rate: 80-ns and 30-ns pulse on-times of discharge current can be obtained by using the transistor-type isopulse generator developed in this research, and the removal rate of this generator is two or three times higher than that of the traditional RC pulse generator.