Intensification of the anodic erosion in electrospark alloying by the employment of pulse group

Abstract

A modified electrospark alloying (ESA) method and installation were designed. The method based on periodically employed identical pulse groups in which the order of individual pulses, their numbers, electrical parameters of each and pause between them were adjustable. This ESA could be set for various directions according to technological aim. In the present study, the technological aim was to increase the mass loss of the treating electrode (anode) and the mass gain of the substrate (cathode). Experiments were conducted using sequence of identical pulse groups. Mass loss of the treating electrode and mass gain of the substrate were measured. During the experiments the following pulse parameters in a group were used: pulse current amplitude, pulse duration and pause between the pulses of a pulse group with ranges of 200-500 A, 100-400 mu s, and 0-1800 mu s respectively. Using the modified processing method, in some cases it was possible to increase the mass loss of the treating electrode by 50% or more compared to the conventional method. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.