An environmental-friendly electrical discharge machining using different sustainable techniques: a review

ABSTRACT

Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is one of the most broadly used non-traditional machining processes. The introduction of the idea of sustainable production and the need to adjust the ISO norms are essential for the assessment of all production methods using the principles of sustainability. The traditional EDM uses kerosene as a dielectric with poor safety and unfriendly environmental consequences. To solve this issue, the substitution of hydrocarbon dielectric is the principal consideration in EDM investigation. This research offers an intensive review of the environment-friendly EDM processes, where the objective is to try dielectric liquids that can be replaced, bypassing traditionally used EDM oil. It is seen that water- and gas-based dielectrics could assume control over synthetic oil in the EDM process. Revolutionary sustainable technologies using water or bio-dielectric have been introduced to rectify sustainability issues and have benefited greatly from the evolution of the EDM operation in terms of efficiency and sustainability. Innovative environmental-friendly EDM processes, which have determined the step of advancement in the field of scientific and mechanical research, are briefly discussed in this article. A blueprint of the forthcoming trends of the research is indicated in the last segment.

KEYWORDS:

• Electrical discharge machining
• dry-electrical discharge machining
• near-dry electrical discharge machining
• dielectrics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.