Fundamental study on dielectric oil viscosity for high-performance wire EDM

Abstract

Dielectric oil has been recently used in wire electrical discharge machining (wire EDM) for achieving high-precision machining. However, the influence of dielectric oil properties on wire EDM characteristics has not been clarified sufficiently. This study fundamentally investigated the influence of dielectric oil viscosity on wire EDM characteristics. In this study, three types of dielectric oil differing only in viscosity were prepared and examined. Linear cutting experiment results showed that the removal rate and the machined surface roughness increase with dielectric oil viscosity. Then, the influence of viscosity on crater removal volume was investigated to discuss the cause of the change in removal rate, and it was found that crater removal volume increases with the viscosity. Furthermore, CFD (computational fluid dynamics) analysis results and discharge observation results showed that the debris exclusion becomes worse in higher viscosity oil, and the discharge concentration occurs frequently, resulting in the deterioration in machined surface roughness. Next, the difference in machining accuracy with dielectric oil viscosity was investigated. It was found that the corner shape accuracy deteriorates with the increase of viscosity while the machined surface waviness and straightness improve slightly. Structural analysis results showed that wire deflection increases with viscosity, resulting in the deterioration in corner shape accuracy. On the other hand, high-speed observation of wire vibration was carried out, and it was found that the wire vibration decreases in the case of higher viscosity, which leads to the improvement in machined surface waviness and straightness.