ABSTRACT
A large number of high-strength, high-temperature-resistant materials such as titanium alloys and nickel-based high-temperature alloys are widely used in the aerospace industry. The machining of those difficult-to-machine materials by mechanical machining has low efficiency and high cost problems. Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) is a non-contact machining method, which uses discharge energy supplied by pulse power to remove materials from the workpiece by melting and vaporization. There is no obvious force between the electrode and the workpiece in the discharge process. The machining efficient of the EDM process is independent of the strength and hardness of materials, and it is related to the physical property of materials such as electrical conductivity and thermal characteristic. The EDM process has a good performance in the machining of materials that has high electrical conductivity and low thermal conductivity, and it provides a good choice for machining of high-strength and high-temperatureresistance materials (Ho & Newman 2003).
