Electrical discharge diamond grinding (EDDG): A review

Abstract

Due to the lower productivity of electrical discharge machining (EDM) process, it is not widely used for machining purpose. So, a new hybrid machining process (HMP) has been discovered, namely electrical discharge diamond grinding (EDDG). This EDDG is the combination of electric discharge machining (EDM) and grinding wheel with metal-bonded diamond grit. EDDG gives better performance than EDM due to the spark generation the rotating diamond wheel. This paper aims to summarize the work done by various researchers on EDDG process along with developments in the same area. Various output responses such as Wheel Wear Rate (WWR), Surface Roughness (Ra), Average Surface Roughness (ASR) and Material Removal Rate (MRR) have been analysed by different researchers considering various factors like pulse current, wheel speed, pulse on time, duty factor, Abrasive Particle Size (APS), infeed, pulse off time and abrasive particle concentration (APC) as input parameters, to compare the performance of the process considering different configurations of EDDG. The study reveals that EDDG can be efficiently used for grinding, super alloys, MMCs, cremates and various combinations of carbide steel. Further, it was concluded that online dressing, thermal softening of the workpiece and de-clogging of the wheel are remarkable features of EDDG. This process has a great future scope as it provides us the surface finish in order of few nanometers.