An investigation of tube and rod electrode wear in micro EDM drilling

This paper studies the influence of various factors contributing to micro electrode wear during electrical discharge machining (EDM) drilling with micro rod and micro tube electrodes. In this paper, a simple method for calculating volumetric wear ratios is proposed based only on geometrical information obtained from the process. The objective of the research is to investigate the wear behaviour of electrodes and the suitability of electrode wear compensation methods. Electrode shape deformation and random variation of the volumetric wear are studied as the main factors affecting the applicability of wear compensation methods and as an indicator of the accuracy achievable with the micro EDM process.