Renjie Ji, Yonghong Liu*, Yanzhen Zhang, Xin Dong, Zhili Chen and Baoping Cai
The Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, vol. 25, no. 6, pp.1535-1542, 2011

Abstract : Silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic has been widely used in modern industry. However, the beneficial properties of SiC ceramic make machining difficult and costly by conventional machining methods. This paper proposes a new process of machining SiC ceramic using end electric discharge (ED) milling. The process is able to effectively machine a large surface area on SiC ceramic at low cost and no environmental pollution. The effects of emulsion concentration, emulsion flux, milling depth, copper electrode number, and copper electrode diameter on the process performance such as the material removal rate, electrode wear ratio, and surface roughness have been investigated. In addition, the microstructure of the machined surface is examined with a scanning electron microscope, and the material removal mechanism of SiC ceramic during end ED milling is obtained.

Keyword : Electrical discharge machining; End electric discharge milling; Machining characteristics; Silicon carbide ceramic; Technological parameter