Analysis of the influence of EDM parameters on surface quality, MRR and EW of WC-Co

The adequate selection of manufacturing conditions is one of the most important aspects to take into consideration in the die-sinking electrical discharge machining (EDM) of conductive ceramics, as these conditions are the ones that are to determine such important characteristics as: surface roughness, electrode wear (EW) and material removal rate, among others. In this work, a study was carried out on the influence of the factors of intensity (I), pulse time (t(i)) and duty cycle (eta) over the listed technological characteristics. The ceramic used in this study was a cemented carbide or hard metal such as 94WC-6Co. Approximately 50% of all carbide production is used for machining applications but cemented carbides are also being increasingly used for non-machining applications, such as: mining, oil and gas drilling, metal forming and forestry tools. Accordingly, mathematical models will be obtained using the technique of design of experiments (DOE) to select the optimal machining conditions for finishing stages. This will be done only using a small number of experiments. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.