Analysis of accuracy of high-aspect-ratio holes generated using micro-electric discharge machining drilling

Micro-electric discharge machining (micro-EDM) has evolved as one of the prominent processes to generate high-aspect-ratio and accurate micro-structures in many industrial applications. This paper presents an extensive experimental analysis of the micro-EDM process to explore the relationship between accuracy as a function of depth of micro-holes drilled using micro-EDM drilling. It is shown that a depth of 5.0 mm can be achieved by a 200 μm diameter tool electrode while controlling the regular process parameters, but beyond this length, the process is governed by a number of derived phenomena such as secondary sparking, debris accumulation, etc. instead of the regular processing parameters. The optimum depth of the hole that could be achieved with a good accuracy i.e. a minimum oversize lies between 2.5 and 5.0 mm, the largest depth that could be achieved was 8.33 mm. The highest aspect ratio achieved in this experiment was 15.63.