Proceedings of the
World Congress on Micro and Nano Manufacturing (WCMNM 2022 )
19–22 September 2022, Lueven, Belgium
doi:10.3850/978-981-18-5180-3_RP20-0044
Micro-EDM Milling of Free form Surfaces Exploiting a 2 DOF Highprecision Rotary Table: Preliminary Tests
1Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing, National Research Council, via P. Lembo 38/F, 70124, Bari, Italy
2Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing, National Research Council, via A. Corti 12, 20133, Milano, Italy
ABSTRACT
Traditional 3-degree of freedom micro-EDM milling adopts the layer-by-layer approach to easily compensate for the tool wear and reduce the corresponding machining error. However, the layer-by-layer approach discretizes the nominal geometry and influences machining accuracy. The problem becomes more evident when free-form surfaces are fabricated. Similar to conventional milling, the adoption of interpolating rotational axes can potentially improve the process performance in terms of geometrical accuracy. In the present study, high-precision rotating axes are adopted to investigate the machining strategy when the tool is engaged using a 4th rotating axis in freeform surface finishing. The study is developed by performing micro-milling tests of cylindrical slots, analyzing the tool wear behavior and the process performance, and comparing them to the planar layer-by-layer micro-milling approach. Results show the feasibility of the proposed approach.
Keywords: micro-EDM, micro-features, 3D machining, 5 dof micro-EDM machining.
1Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing, National Research Council, via P. Lembo 38/F, 70124, Bari, Italy
2Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing, National Research Council, via A. Corti 12, 20133, Milano, Italy
ABSTRACT
Traditional 3-degree of freedom micro-EDM milling adopts the layer-by-layer approach to easily compensate for the tool wear and reduce the corresponding machining error. However, the layer-by-layer approach discretizes the nominal geometry and influences machining accuracy. The problem becomes more evident when free-form surfaces are fabricated. Similar to conventional milling, the adoption of interpolating rotational axes can potentially improve the process performance in terms of geometrical accuracy. In the present study, high-precision rotating axes are adopted to investigate the machining strategy when the tool is engaged using a 4th rotating axis in freeform surface finishing. The study is developed by performing micro-milling tests of cylindrical slots, analyzing the tool wear behavior and the process performance, and comparing them to the planar layer-by-layer micro-milling approach. Results show the feasibility of the proposed approach.
Keywords: micro-EDM, micro-features, 3D machining, 5 dof micro-EDM machining.
