Design of exotic materials machining system

New exotic materials such as titanium alloys and carbon fiber reinforced plastics require strong hard cutters made of cubic boron nitride or polycrystalline diamond. However, the traditional mechanical diamond grinding process is slow and causes damage to the workpiece. This chapter examines the design requirements of an electrical discharge machining system that can be used to machine polycrystalline diamond tipped carbide drills. A preliminary theoretical model is described but the system complexity requires a gain scheduling approach to the control system design.