Abstract

Background: Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) technology is widely applied for micro- manufacturing of difficult-to-process materials and complex shapes, which causes a growing demand for tool electrodes. The machining performance of an electrode eventually affects machining efficiency and accuracy and electrode loss of EDM. Thus, more researches on the electrode structures and electrode materials in the EDM process are gradually conducted.

Objective: To meet the growing processing requirement of processing efficiency and accuracy and electrode loss of EDM, the electrode structures and electrode materials in the EDM process are continuously improved.

Methods: This paper retraces various current representative patents relative to the electrode structures and electrode materials in the EDM process.

Results: Through comparing the characteristics of different electrode structures and electrode materials in the EDM process, the current principal problems such as low machining efficiency and accuracy and serious electrode loss are concluded. Furthermore, the future development tendencies of electrode structures and electrode materials of EDM are discussed.

Conclusion: The optimization of electrode structures and electrode materials in the EDM process is conducive to solve the problems of machining efficiency and accuracy and electrode loss during EDM. More correlative patents on electrode structure and electrode material will be filed in the future.

Keywords: Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM), electrode loss, electrode materials, electrode structures, machining efficiency and accuracy, tool electrodes.