Effect of the Surfactant Concentration on Sinking Electric Discharge Machining Performance with Water-in-oil Emulsion as Dielectric

摘要

In this paper, the EDM performance of water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions dielectric with different surfactant concentration is investigated by correlated to its physical properties, such as viscosity and droplets size, which is predominantly determined by the surfactant concentration. Experimental results show that the stability of the W/O emulsions increases with increasing surfactant concentration, whereas the EDM performance deteriorates with increasing surfactant concentration. So, taking a comprehensively consideration of the emulsion stability and EDM performance, the concentration of surfactant must be appropriately selected.