Numerical modelling and experimental investigations to predict the tool wear of copper electrodes during µ-EDM process

The micro electrical discharge machining (µ-EDM) process is one of the most widely used techniques to produce miniaturized components in micro-electro mechanical system (MEMS) applications due to its inherent advantages. This work investigates the wear phenomena and the morphology of the copper electrodes during the micro-die sinking process. A numerical model of a single spark is developed assuming the Gaussian distribution of heat flux to estimate the crater dimensions formed in the copper tool electrode (tool wear) used as a result of electric discharge. The crater dimension attained from the ABAQUS finite element model is validated with experimental results using a single spark test setup. Moreover, the effect of input parameters namely capacitance and voltage on the electrode wear rate and surface roughness is also studied. The crater dimensions from the single discharge study are used to formulate the wear model for different possibilities of crater distribution, such as non-overlapping craters, craters with less than 30 % overlap, and 50 % overlap. The electrode wear rate (EWR) also displayed a decline from 20.4 % to 11.6 % and further to 8 % when the overlap was permitted up to 30 % and up to 50 % for the wear model respectively. The developed model results are further compared with experimental results in terms of the electrode wear rate and depth of erosion and the deviations are found to be 20.33 % and 20.55 % respectively