POWDER-MIXED ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE MACHINING OF BIOMEDICAL AND INDUSTRIAL GRADE ALLOYS

The development of the mechanical industries and biomedical engineering
nowadays requires alloy materials having good mechanical and physical properties.
Shaping of parts made from "di ftlcult-to-cut" alloys is a challenge even when using
non-conventional processes such electrical discharge machining. The limitations of
existing processes in machining implants are surface modification, biocompatibility
corrosion, residual stress and reducing of fatigue performance induced during the
process. Powder-mixed electrical discharge machining (PMEDM) was hypothesized
and employed to be a solution to address above mentioned problem. Yet this
technique is still at its infancy stage and deserves more investigation. The objectives
of this study is to desib'll and analyze PMEDM ··open" system, to analyze and
synthesize PMEDM on biomedical grade titanium alloy and industrial grade
molybdenum high speed steel (HSS), to generate PMEDM performance models for
numeric output responses, and to test, analyze and synthesize effect of PMEDM on
biomedical grade titanium alloy corrosion rate.