EDM characteristics of carbon fiber reinforced plastic

Carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) is a very strong and light composite material, and it has many applications in aerospace and automotive fields. However conventional mechanical machining methods, such as cutting and grinding have some problems; delaminating, splintering, burrs of machined surface and short tool life. Electrical discharge machining ( EDM) is an effective alternative for machining difficult-to-cut materials. In this paper, the EDM characteristics, such as material removal rate, electrode wear rate and surface roughness for CFRP were experimentally investigated with varying discharge peak current and pulse duration.