In twenty Century, copper was widely used as electrode material in EDM. At that time, only in the production of large electrodes and mold processing requirements are not high or rough machining, graphite materials will become an alternative. Some of the early contact with the graphite electrode of the technical staff have a general impression: the graphite material is dirty, surface effect is not good, the processing efficiency is not high, etc.. With the development of high and new technology, and constantly improve the manufacturing process of graphite material, can satisfy different EDM demand of graphite materials emerge in an endless stream, market graphite for high speed milling machine tool arises at the historic moment, numerical control electric spark machine tool graphite discharge performance also promotes in the round. Nowadays, in the manufacturing technology leader in Europe, more than 90% of the electrode materials by graphite mould enterprises. Aerospace, automotive, home appliances and electronic mould has been widely using graphite as the electrode material, the significant
Due to the change of the graphite electrode has many advantages such as high efficiency and high quality processing.
Graphite is a kind of non metallic materials, the melting point is very high, up to 3650 degrees Celsius, and the melting point of copper is 1083 degrees Celsius, so the graphite electrode can withstand greater current setting conditions. When the discharge area and the size of the electrode is larger, the advantage of high efficiency and rough machining of the graphite material is more significant. The thermal conductivity of graphite is 1/3, the heat energy produced during the discharge process can be more effective in the removal of metal materials, and therefore, in the finishing process, the machining efficiency is higher than that of the copper electrode.
