Monitoring of the discharge current by Hall-effect sensor

Abstract

The paper describes the use of Hall-effect sensor to monitor the discharge current in electrical discharge machining (EDM). The discharge current across the gap between tool and workpiece is fed into developed acquisition system for the recording of impulses during processing. The data acquisition system consists of a sensor that works on the Hall element principle and microcontroller which collects and sends data on the PC that performs data acquisition. Experimental results have shown that discharge current and discharge duration can be clearly classified even with different machining conditions. The integration of the acquisition system can substantially improve the performance of the EDM process trought the analysis of discharge current.