Improvement of material removal rate of Ti-6Al-4V alloy by electrical discharge machining with multiple ultrasonic vibration

According to recent research the inferiority of electrical discharge machining performance of Ti-6Al-4V alloy was obvious. In this paper an efficient machining process, which combines electrical discharge machining and multiple ultrasonic vibration, is proposed for improving the material removal rate. The experimental results show that the materials removal rate of both SKD11 and Ti-6Al-4V alloy is remarkably improved with the proposed machining process, especially for Ti-6Al-4V alloy at small pulse duration. The improvement mechanism is assumed to be a fact that multiple ultrasonic vibration accelerates the ejection of debris out of the small gap between the facing materials, i.e., the electrode and workpiece. It is also shown that lower relative electrode wear is obtained, and the most significant effect is observed when machining with lower pulse duration or higher discharge current. Experimental result indicate that comparing with conventional electrical discharge machining, the proposed machining process produces a thinner recasting layer, although it is with slight deterioration in the finished surface.