In order to have a good comprehension of the heat input and hence the temperature evolution in the EDM process it is crucial to gain an insight into the two-dimensional position distribution of consecutive discharges. This distribution affects the material removal from the workpiece and tool electrodes as well as the manufacturing precision. Consequently, an investigation of the discharge distribution across the electrode profile represents a very relevant research issue. Therefore, for this article the rear side of thin specimens was observed using a thermographic camera whilst the front was machined by a S-EDM process. Every discharge caused a heat input on the front, which was conducted through the specimen and generated a hot spot on its rear. The temperature field was recorded by a thermographic camera. The recorded data were analyzed by a specific image data processing software, which detected the hot spots and classified them according to their two-dimensional position. In a further step, the machining data was compared to the image data in order to assign the discharge energy to the discharge location. This comparison provides the time- and spatial-resolved energy distribution during the S-EDM process.
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