Experimental study on EDM of network microstructure titanium matrix composites

The network microstructure titanium matrix composites (NMTMCs) exhibit excellent properties but research on its machining remains limited. In this paper, single and continuous pulse electrical discharge machining (EDM) experiments were conducted on the NMTMCs composed of Ti6Al4V matrix combined with 5% vol. network distributed TiB whisker (TiBw). The impact of TiBw on EDM was analyzed in comparison to the machining results of pure Ti6Al4V. The results indicate that the TiBw reinforcements absorbs pulse energy during the machining process, resulting in smaller areas and more complex morphologies for the EDM craters. Based on this, a linear absorption model for pulse energy by reinforcement strips is proposed. Furthermore, in continuous pulse EDM with low capacitance settings, the presence of TiBw tends to generate micro pores on the surface and reduce material removal rate (MRR). However, when using higher capacitance settings, MRR for NMTMCs can surpass that achieved for pure Ti6Al4V.