Investigation of the Relative Gas Volume in the Discharge Gap when Using Water in Oil Emulsion as Dielectric

The gas presented in the discharge gap which was generated by the decomposition and vaporization of the dielectric due to the extremely high temperature in the EDM process plays an important role in the aspect of EDM performance. In this paper, the relative gas volume in the discharge gap is investigated when water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion was used as dielectric. Parameters, such as peak current, pulse duration, water content of the W/O emulsion were researched. Experimental results show that the relative gas volume in the discharge gap was significantly affected by discharge energy. Besides the discharge energy, water content of W/O emulsion is another significant factor that affects the gas volume in the discharge gap.