THE IMPACT OF GENERATOR PARAMETERS ON COATED ELECTRODE WEAR IN THE WEDM PROCESS

This paper investigates the wear of a coated wire electrode during the WEDM process. The electrode used was a multi-layer coated wire with a copper core and a special GAMA Cu5Zn8 alloy coating. The electrode was electrolytically coated. The machined material was a K-grade cemented carbide rod with a diameter of 25 mm. Experiments were conducted on a Charmilles Robofil 310 machine. Electrode wear was evaluated based on the weight loss of a 3-meter wire, measured with 0.001 g resolution. The experiment was designed using the Taguchi methodology and evaluated by ANOVA. Machining stability was monitored using an oscilloscope.