Experimental Study On EDM Processing Of Mold Steel S136and MIRRAX And C, Si Elements Impact On EDM Characteristics

In mold manufacturing process, the content of trace elements in moldsteel will be changed in order to improve the material properties. The resultsof the change often caused the change of EDM characteristics（such asprocessing speed, electrode wear rate and surface quality）. Changes ofprocessing speed will lead to the extension of processing time. Changes ofelectrode wear rate will affect the machining accuracy. Changes of surfacequality even will lead to failure of the mold. These all changes will increasethe cost of production. Therefore, research the EDM characteristics of moldsteel is very imperative.In this paper, we first study the EDM characteristics of model steel S136and MIRRAX. Using orthogonal experiment to compare the machining speedand surface quality (surface roughness and microscopic surface morphology)of S136and MIRRAX. Then using significance analysis method to study thefactors that have significant impact on the quality of the surface andprocessing speed after EDM process. Then optimize the processingparameters. Then use single-factor experiments to test the optimizedprocessing parameters. The experimental results show that the capacitanceparameter has a great impact on the surface quality of S136and MIRRAXafter EDM processing.In order to clarify the reason that the content of trace elements in modelsteel lead to different EDM characteristics. This paper use experimentalmethod to study the relationship between C, Si elements and EDMcharacteristics. First, study C element in the high-carbon steel, carbon steel,low carbon steel relationship with EDM characteristics. Then research the variation of EDM characteristics when C and Si elements changed.Comprehensive of C element’s relationship with EDM characteristics tostudy the relationship between Si element and EDM characteristics.In theanalysis, we discussed relationship between the content of C, Si elements inmold steel with inter-pole state and the thermal conductivity. The resultsshowed that the change of C, Si type and content is by affecting inter-polestate to cause a variation in characteristics of the electric discharge machiningof the mold steel. And different contents of C, Si elements will lead todfferent EDM characteristics.