Development of Discharge Electrode for Machining Connector Mold applying MIM Process

MIM 공법 적용 커넥터 금형 가공용 방전 전극 개발

A discharge electrode plays a role of shaving off workpiece with spark generated by current in discharge machining. Accordingly, for the discharge electrode, an electrode with excellent wear resistance is necessary. Generally, Graphite and Cu are used as the materials of the electrode, and recently Cu-W is mainly used as an electrode with excellent wear resistance. However, the form of the electrode generally used is produced mostly using cutting work, so a lot of costs incur if several similar forms are needed. Thus, this study developed a Cu-W electrode using Metal Injection Molding (MIM) process to produce similar forms with excellent productivity and a great quantity of electrodes in a similar form in discharge machining and carried out a discharge machining test. In developing an electrode applying MIM, predicting contraction of a product in a sintering process, a mold expansion ratio of 1.29486 was given, but the actual product showed a percentage of contraction 24% to 32%, which showed a difference of 3% to 5%. In addition, to verify wear resistance of the discharge electrode, abrasion loss was measured after the discharge.