What is the difference between EDM and high speed milling?

Core Tip: EDM is a process of thermal corrosion of discharge, which has almost no mechanical force during electrical discharge machining. High-speed milling is a machining process that uses a certain geometry of the cutting edge. What is the difference between them in application?

EDM is a process of thermal corrosion of discharge, which has almost no mechanical force during electrical discharge machining. High-speed milling is a machining process that uses a certain geometry of the cutting edge. From these often unattractive differences, some features of the basic capabilities can be determined for certain applications. High-speed milling is a complementary process in the EDM process by machining steering and stabilizing the heel in the manufacture of graphite electrodes and copper electrodes. From this perspective, high-speed milling has become a complementary process in EDM.

The operating costs of EDM machines and high-speed milling machines are largely equivalent. The premise is to compare each other with the same type of machine. In this comparison, the cost consideration is that despite the obvious advantages of high-speed milling, for some geometrically complex components, only EDM machining can be used to perform precision and reliable machining.

Compared to EDM, high-speed milling is also limited by other conditions, namely the ratio of cavity depth to width. The ratio of the cavity depth to the radius at the corner of the inner wall of the cavity also has similar limitations for high speed milling. In this regard, it makes sense for the two processing processes to be combined, for example, unusually in the processing unit. For this combination, machining tasks that are impossible with high-speed milling are accomplished by EDM.

In the last decade, high-speed milling has not only reduced the market share of EDM, but also reduced the market share of conventional milling, and high-speed milling has also squeezed into the field of hard machining.

From the point of view of the quality of the machined surface that can be achieved, at present, these two processing technologies are widely used in the mechanical hardware manufacturing industry, which can reach the same level, while high-speed milling has a small advantage. In actual production, EDM is subject to the following limitations: The quality of the machined surface that EDM can achieve depends on the area of â€‹â€‹action of the electrode. If the area is increased, the surface quality that can be achieved will decrease.

High speed milling can be considered a fast machining process. When roughing, the amount of material to be removed per unit time that can be achieved, or the surface area that can be achieved per unit time during finishing, high-speed milling has a speed advantage of 3 to 4 times that of EDM. However, in the case of unmanned operation, the EDM equipment should be said to be relatively reliable in terms of automation operation, and the equipment can continue to operate after one day of work.