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Procedia Engineering 63 (2013) 499 505

The Manufacturing Engineering Society International Conference, MESIC 2013

Influence of the Process Parameters to Manufacture Micro-cavities

by Electro Discharge Machining (EDM)
D. Gurgua, E. Vzqueza, I. Ferrera,*

Abstract
Increasing demand on micro-product has driven the development of innovative manufacturing process to this new requirements
as well as the adaptation of conventional metal cutting process to these micro-scale applications. In the medical field a huge
variety of products can be found in prosthesis, surgery devices or tissue engineering. This paper researches the application of
the conventional EDM process to manufacture micro cavities with the objective to obtain how the process parameters could
effects on the result. As a result the dimensions and shape of the micro-cavities are analyzed.

2013
2013 The
The Authors.
Authors. Published
Published by
by Elsevier
Elsevier Ltd.
Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and
and peer-review
peer-review under
under responsibility
responsibility of
of Universidad
Universidad de
de Zaragoza,
Zaragoza, Dpto
Dpto Ing
Ing Diseo
Diseo yy Fabricacion.
Fabricacion
Selection
: EDM technology; Die-sinking EDM; micromachining; micro-cavities.

1. Introduction
Electro-discharge machining (EDM) is a thermal process by which conductive material can be machined using
electric discharges. The process is based on applying a voltage between the tool electrode and the workpiece while
both are immersed in a dielectric fluid. During the process, the tool and workpiece are at a distance of microns
when a plasma channel is created between the anode and cathode. Most of the electrical energy is transformed into
thermal energy and the material melts or vaporizes instantly.

Corresponding author Tel: +34 972 41 8265

: ines.iferrer@udg.edu

1877-7058 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Universidad de Zaragoza, Dpto Ing Diseo y Fabricacion
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2013.08.254

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D. Gurgu et al. / Procedia Engineering 63 (2013) 499 505

This absence of contact between the tool and the workpiece and the use of thermal energy for machining make
this technology highly suitable for applications where really hard materials are required solving important
problems such as residual stress, chatter and other vibrations due its negligible cutting force (Nguyen et.al
2013).Micro-EDM is capable that holes have to be machined with diameters smaller than 5 m and with surface
roughness (Rmax) less than 0.1 m (Masuzawa, 2000). Typical hole diameters range from 8 to 500 mm and depth
to diameter ratios (L/d) of 20 or more can be achieved (Bamberg and Heamawatanachai, 2009). The downscaling
of the manufacture processes requires a new approach to EDM process design. Typically micro-EDM has tended
to use conventional EDM machines adapting to ensure the new requirements of micro-manufacturing, due to issues
in the process manifested.
The main limitations of EDM are that only conductive materials can be machined and that the tool electrodes
have to be replaced regularly due to the tool wear, principally with not suitable machining conditions (Nguyen et.al
2013, Diver et. al. 2004). The needing to produce accurate three-dimensional cavities, convert the electro wear in
interest topic of research In conventional die-sinking electro discharge machining (EDM), the problem of wear
occurring on the electrode is well-known (Mohri et.al, 1995). The solution of this problem usually is using a
number of electrodes to produce a cavity. The error caused by electrode wear often insignificant due to the feature
sizes and tolerances required. The machining conditions in micro-EDM differ significantly from those in
conventional EDM (Blatnik et.al, 2005). The usual die-sinking method based on employing electrodes for
roughing followed by electrodes for finishing is not applicable due to the cost of multiple electrodes with
microfeatures. In addition, the microfeatures will suffer severe wear resulting in the need for even more electrodes.
Tool wear is affected by the precipitation of carbon from the hydrocarbon dielectric on to the electrode surface
during sparking according to Mohri et al. (1995). They also found that the reason of the rapid wear of the electrode
edge portion was due to the failure of carbon to precipitate at the region with large curvature. The first challenge
related with tool wear is accurately measuring the amount of wear due to very small wear volumes are involved.
The tool wear can be divided in two aspects, deformation of the electrode shape and volumetric wear (Pham et.al.,
2007). Rajurkar et al. (2000) also investigated the uniform wear method (UWM). They achieved integrate
CAD/CAM system (commercially available) with the uniform wear method in order to compensate for tool wear
and finally produce complex 3D micro shapes using simple shaped electrodes. The experimental results show that
the proposed method successfully addresses the problem of electrode wear in generating tool paths.
According to Ho and Newmann (2003) a similar tool wear compensation was investigated by Bleys et al.
studied initially evaluated the reduction of tool length based on pulse analysis and subsequently compensated the
tool wear by controlling the machining downward feeding movement in real-time. Moreover, Kunieda and
Yoshida (1997) reduced the tool wear ratio by performing micro-EDM using high-velocity gas as the dielectric
medium. They concluded that the tool electrode wear ratio is almost zero for any pulse duration. At the same topic
of research, according to Kunieda and Yoshida (1997), Kagaya et al. studied to use water as a working fluid and to
find characteristics. As a result, high removal rate, low electrode wear and consequently higher working efficiency,
without formation of carbonaceous materials are found under optimum experimental conditions, as compared with
the case when kerosene is used.
Mahardika and Mitsui (2008) propose a new method for monitoring micro-EDM processes by using discharge
pulses counting. They found a good agreement between the discharge pulses number and total energy of the
discharge pulses to the amount of material removed and the tool electrode wear characteristics for micro-EDM.
The tool wear compensation factor was calculated by dividing the volume of tool electrode wear with the total
volume of material removed. The tool electrode wear compensation factor can be calculated in order to obtain
accurate dimension, since the amount of tool electrode wear is not same in each machining type and condition due
to this compensation is only valid for tool electrode of AgW and workpiece of brass.
Typically the materials used as tool electrode in micro-EDM are cooper, cemented carbide or tungsten copper,
due to acceptable wear behaviour and machinability. Jahan et al. (2009) developed an extensive experimental
investigation in order to obtain fine surface finish in die-sinking micro-EDM of tungsten carbide using different
electrode materials such as tungsten (W), tungsten-copper (CuW) and tungsten-silver (AgW). The effect of
different operating parameters in addition to electrode material properties on the finishing micro-EDM of tungsten
carbide has been investigated. They conclude that for the finishing micro-EDM of WC, nanosurface can be
produced using RC-type pulse generator by minimizing the discharge energy per pulse by means of low gap
voltage and capacitance. However, at very low voltage there may be some traces of surface defects due to arcing

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and short circuits taking place at lower gap width. Among the three electrodes, AgW is the best choice for the
finishing micro-EDM of tungsten carbide, giving lower Ra and Rmax, considerably high material removal rate and
lower corner wear. However, for faster micro-EDM, CuW can perform well as it exhibits the highest material
removal rate and relatively lower electrode wear ratio. Additionally, AgW provides better electrical and thermal
properties compared to other EDM electrodes which make it an important choice for the finishing micro-EDM of
tungsten carbide.
Blatnik et al. (2005) developed experimental study concerning to find the significant machining parameters for
the material removal rate (MRR) and to predict and verify the optimal machining parameters. They deduce that the
optimal value of the current depends on the electrode size: greater the electrode higher the working and ignition
current. Respect to voltage has no significant effect to the material remove rate as long as the machining process is
stable. Bamberg and Heamawatanachai (2009) studied the effect of the electrode orbital motion for drilling
micro-holes on the electrode wear and the MRR. The comparison between orbiting and non-orbiting has been
done. The results show that orbiting the axial wear is reduced as a consequence better dimensional accuracy is
achieved. The machining time in also reduced and the MMR keep constant along the depth of the hole. Sanchez
et. al. (2013) Propose the Inverse Slab Electrical Discharge Milling process (ISEDM) process for the set-up of
microelectrodes of high aspect ratio with high precision. Materials like hardened steel, graphite and CuW
micropins have been tested in several aspect ratio values. Jahan et. al. (2009) experimented the effect of vibration
frequency and amplitude in micro EDM drilling. The results show that after applying workpiece vibration the
MRR increases and EWR decreases significantly. The amounts of deposited debris around the edge of micro-holes
reduce significantly after applying vibration. Generally improve the process stability and the efficiency. Garn et. al.
(2011) investigated the effect of vibrations on micro-EDM process for the start-up process .
The paper is focused on analysing the effect of the process parameters for manufacturing micro cavities used in
several medical field such us grown biological cells, mono fluidics systems for dosing drug, tissue engineering or
human DNA testing. The micro cavities dimensions can vary from 400 700 m depending on the application.
After the manufacturing their dimensions and shape were measured in the results.

Trayectoria
Orbital
Trajectory
Electrodo

Fig. 1. Setup electro discharge machining.

Fig. 2. Schematic view of the electrode and orbital strategy

2. Experimental Setup
The electro discharge machine used to perform the experimentation was an ONA DB 300 SERIES ED (Fig. 1).
A conventional dielectric fluid was used (ONA oil specific gravity = 0.760-0.770 gr/cm3). The workpiece
material tested in this study was stainless steel 316L. The electrode tools material is electrolytic copper because its
good behaviour in steel machining. Higher material removal rates (MRR) with low relative tool wear (RTW) and
good surface roughness can be achieved offering a good overall performance.
The electrode tools were manufactured using a Deckel-Maho 64V Linear. In order to minimize errors,
Erowa clamping device was aligned with machines X, Y and Z axis using a dial indicator with 1m accuracy to
provide a fine adjustment between the machined electrodes axis and the subsequent machining path in the EDM

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D. Gurgu et al. / Procedia Engineering 63 (2013) 499 505

machine. The dimensions of the electrode were 400m x 400m and 800m in depth. The Fig. 2 shows the
schematic view of the electrode and also shows the orbital strategy of the experiment set, the orbital radio was 200
m, so that the final dimensions of the micro-cavity were 600 m x 600m and 100 m in depth. To determine
influential parameters for micro-EDM machining on accuracy and shape of the micro-cavities, 24 experiments
have been carried out based on the design of experiments showed in Table 1. In this study, these input parameters
were selected according the expertise achieved in previous research work (Pellicer et. al., 2009).The EDM
parameters presented in Table 2 were kept constant during the experimentation to ensure a correct comparison
between the 24 tests.
Table 2. Variable factors and factor levels
of Micro-scale EDM

Table 1. Variable factors and factor levels of Micro-scale EDM.

Parameters

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

Intensity, I [A]
Voltage, V [V]
Pulse off time, to [s]

1
200
4.8

2
120
1.6

120
3.2

Parameters
Servo, S [%]
Pulse on time, ti [s]
Working Time, Tw [s]
Pause Time, Tp [s]

200

65
3.2
0.8
0.2

Dimensional measurements in plane XY were performed with a Microscope Discovery 12 from Zeiss to
collect the digital images using Quartz PCI Software. The measurement of profile on the micro-cavity bottom
surface was conducted with a stylus instrument Mitutoyo SV2000 Surftest.
3. Results and Discussion
A total number of 24 micro-cavities were machined with electro discharge machining by following the
experimental plan presented in Table 1 and Table 2. The geometrical features and the accuracy are inspected using
the imaging system described in Section 2. In order to obtain the measure of micro-cavity, four measurements are
conducted as illustrated in Fig. 3.

D
Fig. 3. Top view of final measured micro-cavity (Without scale).

The dimensional and geometrical quality of the micro-cavities produced with electro discharge machining
process exhibit large variations. Fig. 4 shows some of the micro-cavities produced by using different EDM input
parameters. These pictures clearly indicate that in some cases there were formation of recast areas this could be
related with the pulse off-time that is not enough to clear all the debris. Furthermore, the circulation of the
dielectric liquid and the existent debris in this could be affecting the discharging process.
Fig. 5a shows the influence of voltage on the accuracy of the final micro-cavity. The results show that there is
not trend about the effect of this variable although when -120V was used more dispersion in the data results was
detected. The same trend is repeated on the effect of the Peak current although in both values the results are quite
grouped around the objective value (Fig. 5b).

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Fig. 4. Micro-cavities results pictures

Length A

Length B

Length C

Length D

Length A

Length of side, [m]

Length of side, [m]

700
650
600
550
500
450
400
240

120

Length B

Length C

Length D

700
650
600
550
500
450
400

Voltage (V), [V]

120

240

a)

0,5

1,5

Peak current (I), [A]

2,5

b)

Fig. 5. Influence of voltage and peak current on the accuracy of the final micro-cavity.

Analyzing the influence of the Pulse off time on the accuracy it is observed that when the value of pulse off
time is 3.2s the best results in terms of consistency and dispersion are achieved (Fig. 6).

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Length of one square side, [m]

504

700
650
600
Length A

550

Length B

500

Length C
Length D

450
400
0

Pulse off time (to), [m]

Fig. 6. Effect of pulse off time on the accuracy of the final micro-cavity.

Each of the micro-cavities has been qualified geometrically on a scale of 1 to 4, where 4 is the best shape
profile and 1 is the worst in Fig. 7 are presented the results. The graphic shows that acceptable results were
obtained using the proposed EDM process parameters. The 54% of experiments were categorized into the excellent
and good quality. This represent that the micro cavities can be manufactured by electro discharge machining.
Geometric
Quality
1 Bad
2 Poor
3 Good
4 Excellent

Voltage, [V]

200
120

1 Bad
30%

28%

2 Poor
3 Good

0
4.8

-120
-200

3.2
1
2

24%

18%

4 Excellent

Pulse off time, [m]

1.6

Peak current, [A]

Fig. 7. Effect of voltage, peak current and pulse off time on the geometric quality of the micro-cavity.

4. Conclusions
In this research the conventional EDM process has been experimented to manufacture products on the microscale. The results provide recommendations of operating conditions for better micro-cavities manufacturing in
stainless steel 316L although more experiments should be done to assure the repeatability. The dimensions of the
cavities obtained were close to the desired values achieving percentage of error below 5% however the roughness
also should be measured. Further materials and micro geometries should be tested to analyse the obtained
recommendations of the process parameters on the dimensions of new micro parts.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Product, Process and Production Engineering Research
Group from the University of Girona and ASCAMM Technological Centre. This work was carried out with the
grant supports from the Spanish Government (project DPI 2009 09852).

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