Electrical discharge machining has the capability of machining all conductive materials regardless of hardness, and has the ability to deal with complex shapes. However, the speed and accuracy of conventional EDM are limited by probability and efficiency of the electrical discharges. This paper describes a three degrees of freedom (3-DOF) controlled, wide-bandwidth, high-precision, long-stroke magnetic drive actuator. The actuator can be attached to conventional electrical discharge machines to realize a high-speed and high-accuracy EDM. The actuator primarily consists of thrust and radial magnetic bearings, thrust and radial air bearings and a magnetic coupling mechanism. By using the thrust and radial magnetic bearings, the translational motions of the spindle can be controlled. The magnetic drive actuator possesses a positioning resolution of the order of micrometer, a bandwidth greater than 100Hz and a positioning stroke of 2mm.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.