EDM

Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is a powerful, nonconventional machining technique with the ability to machine any conductive material regardless of mechanical property. However, the sluggish nature of EDM stands out when the target is in mass production in industrial plants. Poor surface quality, residual stress, and heat-affected zone are among other disadvantages of this technique. Researchers have proposed several solutions to enhance EDM capabilities by utilizing more innovative materials or methods. With emphasis on EDM development aspects, this chapter provides a detailed review of accessible research accompanied by clear categories to build a clear mapping for further research on EDM

3D Printer

Objects created with an FDM printer start out as computer-aided design (CAD) files. Before an object can be printed, its CAD file must be converted to a format that a 3D printer can understand — usually .STL format.

FDM printers use two kinds of materials, a modeling material, which constitutes the finished object, and a support material, which acts as a scaffolding to support the object as it's being printed.

During printing, these materials take the form of plastic threads, or filaments, which are unwound from a coil and fed through an extrusion nozzle. The nozzle melts the filaments and extrudes them onto a base, sometimes called a build platform or table. Both the nozzle and the base are controlled by a computer that translates the dimensions of an object into X, Y and Z coordinates for the nozzle and base to follow during printing.

In a typical FDM system, the extrusion nozzle moves over the build platform horizontally and vertically, "drawing" a cross section of an object onto the platform. This thin layer of plastic cools and hardens, immediately binding to the layer beneath it. Once a layer is completed, the base is lowered — usually by about one-sixteenth of an inch — to make room for the next layer of plastic.

Printing time depends on the size of the object being manufactured. Small objects — just a few cubic inches — and tall, thin objects print quickly, while larger, more geometrically complex objects take longer to print. Compared to other 3D printing methods, such as stereolithography (SLA) or selective laser sintering (SLS), FDM is a fairly slow process.