Recent developments in the theory and design of electric spark machine tools

MACHINE tools in which material removal is effected by the action of successive electric sparks are commercially available in the United States, most western European countries, and are known to be in extensive use in the Soviet Union. As a substitute for industrial diamond tools in the machining of hard materials and as a means of performing machining operations which are otherwise impossible, electric spark machining has attracted extensive industrial interest. An earlier paper1 described the basic process and a theory which explains the phenomena of spark machining. The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of further research into the fundamental processes and some design trends in the electric circuits of spark machine tools.