IECON'O1: The 27th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society Current Source LCC Resonant Converter for an EDM Power Supply Rosario Casanueva, Luis A. Chiquito, Francisco J. Azcondo, Salvador Bracho Univers Dept of Eletronies Technology, ty of Cantabria ‘Systems and Automation Engineering ‘Av de los Casto, sn, 39005 Santander, SPAIN {oharo,lacd, azcondo, bracho) @tesa umican es switching frequency is tuned at the aatural resonant frequency where the converter tends to act as a current source, In tis way, no eects are achieved 1) the necessary tover-voltage, frst to onze the dielectric and then to establish the electric are is generated and 2) 4 constant current is applied daring the erosion of the workpice, providing the Circuit with “Inherent protection under "short circuit ‘andiions. The outpa voltage is Intended to be adjusted by fmexternal sytem tha controls hear dts INTRODUCTION Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) isan clectrothermal process. EDM uses an electrode positioned ata fixed small distance (spark gap) above the workpiece, both submerged in a dielectric fluid. A pulsating de power supply or EDM generator applies volage pulses between the electrode and workpiece, generating sparks or current conduction through the gap. Each spark results in localized heating that melts @ small area ofthe workpiece surface. gt), Basically, an EDM system consists of the following, ‘main components [1) 2} = Workpiece and electrode = Dielectri fi + DC power supply. = Servomechanism, to mainain a constant gap. ‘Traditional EDM power supplies convert the energy at low Frequency, directly from the ult line and they are able to deal with a wide spectrum of output power. The EDM power supply must achieve high voltage to generate the spark and large curtent to maintain te ion column, To achieve this large and heavy transformers and inductances axe required ‘Our proposal uses the characteristics of power mosfet devices’ and resonant converters to achieve @ compact solution to be applied in field machining to provide Imaintenance and repair services 19 nuclear or tration power plants or any industrial plant. EDM is an adequate technique to perform machining tasks in nuclear plans hecause it doesnot produce chips that could cause damage to reactor componens, In EDM, micron size panicles are immediately flushed away with the dielectric id. In addition, tis ideally suited for underwater applications Sine power mosfets accept large repetitive peak current ‘because of the positive temperature coefficient oftheir on- slate resistance, they ar suitable to be used under overload conditions during the dielectric breakdown transition. In fdditon, their high switching fequeney allows the reduction ofthe inductance and transformer size (0-7803-7108-9/01/$10.00 (C)2001 IEEE my Fig. Basi EDM process. 1, PROPOSED EDM SUPPLY ‘The EDM generator must provide the voltage and current waveforms [3] as depicted in Fig. 2 The machining frequency is specified to be up to 10 itz. During the on-ime the generator applies the potential diference between the electrode and workpiece to generate and sustain the current through the are, and during the off time the output power is interrupted, causing the arc current o drop down to 2eo, The generator must increase the voltage between the electrode and the workpiece "ypically upto 200 V, to ionize the delete. ‘Based on experimental measurements, during the on- time, after the dielectric breakdown has occurred, the converter load, that is, the ion column, is modeled as a “| TT ig. 2 Speci EDM waveorms 1027IECON(O1: The 27th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society ‘Once the dieletric resistance is overcome, the generator ‘ust sustain an operating point where the are voltage is fround 28 V and the curent is kept around 10 A until the end ofthe on-time. “The proposed solution for the EDM requirements is @ fullbridge LCC resonant converter operating at switching frequency of 200 kHz, used as a current souree and itis shown in Fig, 3 Resonant converters have wellknown advantages for high frequency de to de power supplies because they result in small sie, light weight and highly efficient systems since high frequency operation minimizes the size of the ‘magnetic components TLCC resonant converters are able to achieve the required voltage for the dielectric breakdown, and working above the resonant frequency, current lags voltage so. this topology achieves zero voltage switching, that is, transistors ten on at 2er0 voltage, resuhing. in eainimum switching losees ‘The full bridge configuration has been chosen because ofits capability of converting high power. {As the continuous change in the gap distance may lead to load changes from open to short circuit conditions, the resonant inverter is designed as a current source to provide the system with inherent protection under short circuit conditions. The open circuit faut mast be limited by an ‘over-voltage protection ‘The design sequence of the LCC resonant inverter is ‘oriented 10 achieve the dielectric breakdown and current stabilization while Timiting maximum stress on the ‘components by design. 4 RGe-EI Il, CURRENT SOURCE, LCC RESONANT INVERTER DESIGN Fig. 4 (2) shows the fall-bridge resonant inverter. The circuit input is the retified utility line voltage, the full bridge topology applies a square wave voltage, va, to the resonant network ‘The waveforms in the resonant circuit are nearly sine waves, 30 essentially a sine wave appears at vag. This analysis method is called the fundamental approximation [M), the first harmonic of vag is applied to the resonant cirouit as shown in Fig 4 (). “The analysis of this circuit is based on the following parameters = The equivalent resistance, Ry that models the rsformer, the half-wave rectifier and the gap resistance = The ratio ofthe capacitances, 0-7803-7108-9/01/$10.00 (C)2001 IEEE anh © ~The pre sora aque, te @) Te = The charatrticimpedance ao, © ok To design the LCC resonant invere the expression of the current amy equivalent resistance [5] is analyzed, comet os, Fig. 5 shows this current as ¢ function of the frequency for different parallel quality factors, that is, for different loads, from shor circuit to open circuit. Expression (5) has ino dependence on the load tthe frequency, ATH may © where 0) isthe unloaded natural resonant frequency of the LCC ciseuit. 1028TECON(I: The 27th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society Fig. Noraliced cura tough Rat icon ofthe switching ‘resus oie! pares et Thus, a this frequency, the current amplitude through the equivalent resistance becomes, i. «leat o jg GT forany valve of rom (). (6) abd (7) the parallel capacitance is obsied for given L. ® wh ‘Taking into account the inverter parameter (1) and (3), the expressions of the series capacitance and the inducior are given by, ° 19) These expressions depend on the input voltage, Vi, the resonant frequency, fe and the required “equivalent resistance current amplitude, ‘The transformer tus ratio, , is calculated to meet the breakdown transition requirements by ‘, ay where Pane i the specified peak output voltage that is the breakdown voltage, and V pic i the maximum value ‘ofthe peak volage across, ‘Thus, the equivalemt resistance voltage amplitude is obtained by, Py (2) nee Vom the ms value ofthe on-state output voltage (0-7803-7108-9/01/$10.00 (C)2001 IEEE. [Asa first approach the half-wave rectifier is considered with no conduction loses and no output filter is used. In this way, the equivalent resistance, which models the rectifier and the load, the current through it and the output resistance are finally obtained by, (3) ay as) The following steps summarize the design sequence: + The input dat: Fy, Prima Vomn VP oaman Pox fe ate collected. = Using (1), the transformer tums ato, nis obtained From (12) and (13) the peak equivalent resistance voltage and R, are calculated Substitution of the resulting values of» and R nto (14) yields the equivalent resistance current, fe © From (8), G, is obtained, the closes standard value is ‘chosen and the fequency fis re-alculted =A value of 4 is selected and using (9) and (10) the values (Of Gand Late obtained. Finally, ftom (15) the value of the ouput resistance, Ro, Which models the gap distance between the electrode and the workpiece is obtained. IV. CONTROL DESIGN AA conttol circuit has been developed to establish the switching frequency of the resonant inverter slightly above ‘510 fix the desired output current during the on-time. During the offtime, two solutions have been verified: 1) to fix the switching frequency well above a}, where the caurrent through the lead is as low as possible while ‘tansstos Keep switching, so atthe next machining pulse the dielectric. breakdown is achieved minimizing. the ‘maximum stress on the components; 2) to tum off the power switches. The second solution has finally been adopted because it does not mean high stress on the Components at the dielectric breakdown and it achieves Tower overall losses than the first solution, It should be noted that the behavior of the LCC inverter is highly ependeat on the Toad except if, for eurent source ‘operation, the switching fequency is a and, at this frequency, the inverter is designed fo supply the nominal output eurent The logic ofthe contol circuits implemented by means ‘of 8 CPLD, which allows easy modification ofthe design, clocked by a 20 MHz erytal oscillator. This control circuit provides the driving signals to the power mosfets at the desired frequency. This fRequeney depends on the reference voltage, which isa square signal with controlled pulse width to adjust the output power at 10 kHz, the specified machining fequency. If the over-vollge Protection is activated during the on-time, the power Iosfes are turned off until the next machining pulse, 1029