Electrical discharge machining of polymer composite materials

Abstract Improving the technical capabilities of manufacturing processes and creating new parts that surpass existing quality benchmarks is a need of modern engineering. Polymer Composite Materials (PCM) are commonly used in the manufacturing of advanced aerospace components. The aim of this work is to study the process of Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) of PCM VKU-29. To study the process performance, three different types of Electrode Tools (ET) of different materials were used. EDM was performed on three modes viz. maximum, medium, and minimum. The influence of process parameters and the electrode type on the formation of spark gap was investigated. The visual and the microscopic inspection revealed the absence of hairiness and traces of fiber rupture in case of composite ET. Thus, it can be concluded that the combination of smallest value of spark gap and the composite ET leads to the best quality of surface amongst all the other combinations. Moreover, while processing the PCM VKU-29 using composite ET, it is advisable to maintain a spark gap of 0.14 mm for the best results.