Electric discharge grinding of polycrystalline diamond materials

The poor electric conductivity of polycrystalline diamond (PCD) makes it difficult to machine with the conventional EDM process. Inappropriate selection of parameters of the power generator and the servo system leads to unstable working condition and low material removal rate. This paper introduces a method to find optimal parameters in the Electrical Discharge Grinding (EDG) of PCD materials with Taguchi method. The theory and detailed procedures are presented, experimental results are analyzed. The optimized configuration was validated through confirmation tests.