A new electrode wear compensation method for improving performance in 3D micro EDM milling

As one of the non-traditional manufacturing processes, micro electrical discharge machining (EDM) has been widely applied for manufacturing precise and complex microstructures. However, a number of issues remain to be studied before micro EDM can become a reliable processing method. Efforts to get higher machining quality and to improve efficiency have been carried out. The electrode wear compensation method is one of the key factors in micro EDM milling. This paper proposes a new electrode wear compensation method, the combination of the linear compensation method (LCM) and the uniform wear method (UWM), called the CLU method. This approach combines LCM, UWM and the theoretical model. Experimental results indicate that machining performance such as material removal rate, electrode wear ratio and surface roughness using the proposed method has been improved compared to that by the uniform wear method.