A Comparative Study of Transistor and RC Pulse Generators for Micro-EDM of Tungsten Carbide

Micro-electrical discharge machining (micro-EDM) is an effective method for machining all types of conductive materials regardless of hardness. Since micro-EDM is an electro-thermal process, the energy supplied by the pulse generator is an important factor in determining the effectiveness of the process. In this study, an investigation was conducted on the micro-EDM of tungsten carbide (WC) to compare the performance of transistor and resistance/capacitance (RC) pulse generators in obtaining the best quality micro-hole. The performance was measured by the machining time, material removal rate, relative tool wear ratio, surface quality, and dimensional accuracy. The RC generator was more suited for minimizing the pulse energy, which is a requirement for fabricating micro-parts. The smaller-sized debris formed by the low-discharge energy of RC micro-EDM could be easily flushed away from the machined zone, resulting in a surface free of burrs and resolidified molten metal. The RC generator also required much less time to obtain the same quality micro-hole in WC. Therefore, RC generators are better suited for fabricating micro-structures, producing good surface quality and better dimensional accuracy than the transistor generators, despite their higher relative tool wear ratio.