Analysis of WEDM Process with Respect to Wire Wear and Wire Consumption
Fabian Kneubühler, Moritz Wiessner, Konrad Wegener
Abstract
Wire electric discharge machining (WEDM) gains more and more in importance. Its unique advantages for instance processing material independently of their hardness, at high aspect ratios with good form accuracies and part precision make this process interesting for mould and die industry, aerospace, medical and many other applications. Naturally, the increasing demand requires more wire which plays a significant role in economical as well as in ecological aspects. Due to this fact, there is a high motivation to analyse the wire wear in order to reduce the wire consumption. The literature survey revealed that the effects of process parameters in WEDM on the workpiece have been investigated extensively. However, fewer experiments are conducted in the field of wire wear analysis. Investigative experiments varying the technology parameters discharge current, pulse frequency and wire speed were conducted in an aluminium workpiece. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the wire surface shows the effects of the parameters. The 3D optical wire analysis method shown in this paper is suitable for quantifying wire wear and additionally provides a new perspective into the process compared to the wire wear ratio (WWR) technique. As a result, the wire can be analysed with respect to its radius and roundness deviation.