Electro-erosion edge honing of cutting tools

Sink EDM of fine features necessitates the application of several tool electrodes to sequentially generate the required geometry, due to the inevitable localized wear of the tool that rapidly rounds-off sharp edges. Be that as it may, this phenomenon can be exploited to hone sharp edges of electrically conducting cutting tools by sinking the cutting edge into an appropriate counterface material. This paper presents the proof-of-concept and operating characteristics of this innovative process. Robust edge geometry generation, and a significant improvement in the life of high speed steel tools consequent to such preparation of the cutting edge are demonstrated.