About
EDM (electric discharge machining) is a process which removes metal by vaporizing it with a spark. Anyone who has ever dropped a wrench across a car battery has witnessed a very crude form of EDM. The modern EDM process uses high frequencies, sometimes creating hundreds of thousands of tiny sparks per second. A servo motor changes the feed rate of the electrode to keep the voltage constant and a dielectric fluid serves the purposes of acting as a dielectric barrier to allow the charge to build up, a coolant to prevent the electrode from getting hot, and removing the vaporized metal particles. Early models in the 50's like the ELOX M200 were mainly used to remove broken taps and drills....