Spatially resolved wire EDM discharge analysis for dynamic part strength evaluation

Wire Electrical Discharge Machining (Wire EDM) is particularly suitable for producing high-precision geometries in demanding materials such as the manufacture of profile grooves in turbine disks. Advanced monitoring nowadays allows the time and spatially resolved in-process discharge analysis. Therefore, in this paper the machining of Inconel 718 parts is fundamentally studied and the resulting surface integrity in terms of roughness and residual stresses is evaluated for main and trim cut strategies. Finally, the resulting bending fatigue performance is characterized in a zone resolved and overall averaged analysis along the workpiece height and compared to reference results of alternative machining approaches.