Micro electrical discharge milling of WC-Co using a deionized water spray and a bipolar pulse

Micro electrical discharge milling (ED-milling) is an effective machining process for manufacturing micro structures on hard metals. This method of machining generally uses kerosene or deionized water as the working fluid, both of which are associated with some problems. Kerosene results in considerable electrode wear and deionized water causes electrolytic corrosion in workpieces. In particular, when cemented tungsten carbide (WC-Co), which has superior strength, hardness and wear resistance, is machined by electrical discharge machining (EDM), the problem of electrolytic corrosion arises as a matter of course since the material is very susceptible to electrolyzation. In this study, spray ED-milling with a bipolar pulsed power source and deionized water was conducted to solve the above problems. This method uses a water spray, which is a mixture of compressed air and deionized water. The spray is injected into the machining gap between the electrode and the workpiece. WC-Co was used for the workpiece and micro grooves were machined on the workpiece. As a result, using the spray ED-milling method, high-quality micro grooves were manufactured on the WC-Co workpiece with no electrolytic corrosion and almost-zero electrode wear.