Department of Industrial and Production Engineering, Dr B. R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar-144011, Punjab, India.
*Corresponding author
Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is a process for shaping hard metals and forming deep and complex-shaped holes by spark erosion in all kinds electro conducting materials. The EDM process is based on thermo electric energy created between a work piece and electrode submerged in dielectric fluid. Metal matrix composites have excellent physical and chemical properties then those of traditional metals; however their poor machinability lead to worse surface quality and serious cutting tool wear due to abrasive nature of reinforcements. Therefore, many researchers explored possibility of non traditional machining techniques like LBM, EDM and water jet machining for machining these materials. This paper reviews the research work carried out in die sinking EDM on Al2O3 reinforced MMCs and hybrid type MMCs. The paper reports the EDM research relating to improvement in performance measures, optimization of process variable, electrode design and manufacture and mathematical modeling of the process. The paper also discusses the future research trends in the same area.
