Preparation of Copper Gear Electrode by Laser Selective Sintering and Its Application in EDM
In order to solve the problems of low manufacturing flexibility and complicated process flow of tool electrode for electric discharge machining(EDM)gear cavity,selective laser sintering(SLS)process was proposed to prepare copper gear electrode.The gear electrode prepared by SLS process has low conductivity due to microstructure defects,which leads to low EDM performance.The conductivity of gear electrode was adjusted by heat treatment process,and the influence of heat treatment parameters on conductivity and EDM performance of gear electrode was studied.The experimental results showed that the conductivity of gear electrode varies from 9.51 Ms/m to 33.8 Ms/m under different heat treatment parameters.Under the annealing temperature of 300℃and the holding time of 4 hours,the gear electrode with good performance was obtained.At this time,the TWR and MRR of the gear electrode are 0.002 4 mm3/min and 0.374 2 mm3/min respectively.Compared with the milling electrode,the MRR of the gear electrode prepared by SLS increased by 31.53%.