Machining and Characterization of Double-Helical Grooves on Cylindrical Copper Parts by Wire Electric Discharge Turning

Abstract

In the work, the design and development of a novel Wire-EDM setup with double-wire guide discs is presented. It facilitates sparks to be generated between the workpiece and wire at two locations separated by the helical pitch distance. This sparking causes two helical grooves to be generated simultaneously on the surface of the workpiece when it is given suitable rotational speed and table feed. In this work, machining is carried out on rods of 1.5 mm diameter. Helical groves with helix angles ranging from 35 to 500 were generated and characterized. This method of machining the double helical grooves with a single pass reduces the machining time and eliminates the complexities involved in machining one groove at a time. It was observed that the proposed method is suitable for machining double helical grooves with helix angles in the range of 40 - 50°. The parts produced by the mentioned method can be used as EDM tools for generation of high aspect ratio holes in turbine blades and injection nozzles.