121

Development of a six-axis wire electrical

discharge machine for the fabrication of
micro end mills
X Cheng1*, Z G Wang1, S Kobayashi2, K Nakamoto2, and K Yamazaki1
1
Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, University of California, Davis, California, USA
2
Sodick Company Ltd, Nakamachidai, Tsuzuki-ku, Yokohama, Japan

The manuscript was received on 21 July 2008 and was accepted after revision for publication on 27 October 2008.

DOI: 10.1243/09544054JEM1299

Abstract: Micro/nano milling applications are needed due to the miniaturization tendency of
components used in medical devices and aerospace equipments. Accordingly, micro end mills
are needed. However, there are no special purpose machine tools designed for the fabrication of
such tools made of ultra hard materials and with complicated three-dimensional geometries. In
this paper, a six-axis wire electrical discharge machine (WEDM) designed for the fabrication of
micro end mills is developed. Direct drive linear motors and rotary motors are used for linear
and rotary axes respectively to realize direct drive instead of ball screws or gearboxes. A special
cooling system for all motors makes the thermal effect minimum on the mechanical structures.
After the introduction of the developed WEDM, its kinematics model is built. The error analysis
for the key axis directly supporting the wire is introduced and the corresponding results are
used to guide the mechanical design of the six-axis WEDM and to compensate for position
errors during machining. Based on these techniques, high machining accuracy is achieved.
Finally, the fabrications of a cutter with complicated geometry and a cutter made of ultra hard
material are successfully demonstrated on the developed machine tool.

Keywords: micro end mills, wire EDM, PCD tools

1 INTRODUCTION temperature resistive (HSTR) materials with the

In order to achieve a long tool life, micro/nano mil-
ling cutters are usually made of ultra hard materials
such as cubic boron nitride (CBN) or polycrystalline
diamond (PCD). The traditional grinding method is
time consuming and sometimes not applicable to
fabricate micro/nano milling tools with complicated
three-dimensional geometries. WEDM can theoreti-
cally machine any materials efficiently, regardless of
their hardness, as long as they are conductive. The
WEDM uses a thin single-strand metal wire as the
electrode to cut through the workpiece, which is one
of the most favourable variants owing to its ability to
machine conductive, exotic, and high strength and
*Corresponding author: Department of Mechanical and Aero-
nautical Engineering, University of California, Davis, One
Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA. email: cxcheng@
ucdavis.edu
scope of generating intricate shapes and profiles [1].
Therefore, multiaxis WEDM is one of the most effi-
cient methods used to fabricate micro/nano milling
cutters. However, the limited versatility of traditional
WEDMs cannot fulfil this industrial demand. A new
micro-WEDM is developed in reference [2], which
can machine a micro slot easily. A prototype com-
puter numerical controlled (CNC) micro-wire EDM is
developed in reference [3], which was experimentally
demonstrated for potentially manufacturing micro-
mechanism parts. A novel mechanism is designed
and a high precision tabletop versatile CNC wire
EDM for machining micro parts is developed in
reference [4], which can machine various micro parts
and structures of sizes between 0.03 and 2.0 mm.
These WEDMs cannot continuously rotates the
electrode wire in two axes for the fabrication of
intricate micro end mills with revolving bodies. In
order to bridge the gap between the industrial
demand and the specially configured multiaxis

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122 X Cheng, Z G Wang, S Kobayashi, K Nakamoto, and K Yamazaki
WEDMs, this paper introduces a six-axis WEDM
specially designed for the fabrication of micro
end mills.
Traditionally, non-direct drive systems composed
of rotary motors, ball screws, gearboxes, or pulley
systems are selected for the machine tool transmis-
sion systems. However, for high accuracy and high
efficient machine tools, these non-direct transmis-
sion systems are not appropriate due to many draw-
backs such as backlash errors, friction problems,
mechanical limitations on acceleration and velocity,
etc. Therefore direct drive systems are selected for
the six-axis WEDM in this paper.
Linear motors are widely applied in machine tools
where high speed, high accuracy, and high reliability
are needed. For linear motions, the direct linear
motor drive system is a good choice for requiring no
transmission elements as in gearboxes, chains, and
screws coupling to convert rotational movement to
translational movement [5–13]. The main advantage
of using the linear motor is that it has high accuracy
because it realizes direct drive instead of ball screws
or gearboxes. The linear motor helps to improve the
servomechanism’s dynamic performances by redu-
cing the error of the driving chain and the inertia
mass. Sodick Company Ltd had developed an EDM
tool with a spindle driven by a linear motor, and its
machining efficiency is greatly improved [14–16].
Similarly for rotary motions, a direct drive rotary
motor, namely the rotary axis of the motor is the
same rotary motion component or fix connected with
the rotary motion component, is a good choice.
Based on the above, this paper develops a six-axis
WEDM for the fabrication of micro end mills. The
linear motions use direct drive linear motors and
rotary motions use direct drive rotary motors. In
order to calculate the relative positions and orienta-
tions between the tool blank and the wire, the inverse
kinematics model of the six-axis WEDM has been
built for the axis motion allocations. To obtain a high
tool fabrication accuracy, position errors for the key
motion components have been analysed and com-
pensated. At last, a helical end mill with a compli-
cated geometry and a hexagon end mill made of ultra
hard material are fabricated by this WEDM tool.
2 DESIGN OF THE SIX-AXIS WEDM MACHINE
The machine has three linear axes with a program-
mable resolution of 0.1 mm and three rotary axes with
the programmable angular resolution of 0.200 . As
shown in Fig. 1 (the final developed six-axis WEDM
tool), the tool blank has three linear motions and one
rotary motion around its centre-line to realize the
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required positions. The wire has two rotary motions
to realize the required orientations.
2.1 High-precision direct drive system
Linear axes X, Y, and Z are all equipped with linear
motors to realize the direct drive. The linear motor
employed is a specially designed coreless linear
motor aiming at low thrust fluctuation, light mass,
and low impedance to maximize transient response.
It is also effective to minimize the vibration of the
moving components. Three linear motors of the three
linear axes have almost the same structure. Here the
Z axis is taken as an example to show how the linear
motor constructs, as shown in Fig. 2, where 1 is the
cooling pipe, 2 is the motor coil, 3 is the magnet
plate, 4 is the linear scale, 5 is the guide, and 6 is the
frame made of ceramic. The cooling pipe 1 transfers
the cooling fluids directly through the coil 2 and
makes the temperature of the linear motor less than
the ambient temperature of þ2
C, the coil 2 and
magnet plate 3 are arranged symmetrically on both
sides to make the driven forces locate at the centre of
gravity, which can also effectively reduce the vibra-
tion, and the linear scale 4 has a high-resolution
feedback to achieve very precise and stable motion
control of the linear motor, which makes the mini-
mum unit of motion command of a CNC program is
0.1 mm. The frame 6 using ceramic material makes
the motion portion have a high rigidity, light weight,
and low thermal expansion.
As shown in Fig. 1, rotary axes are equipped with
rotary motors to realize the direct drive. For the C
axis, a special cooling pipe is equipped, while U and
V axes are immersed in the dielectric fluid during
machining. The dielectric fluid is cycled and tem-
perature is controlled.
2.2 Unique axis configurations
By the analysis of the typical micro/nano cutting tool
geometry features, it turns out that six-axis WEDMs
are needed for cutting such complicated tool geo-
metries. According to the WEDM features, the axes
are allocated to the workpiece side and the electrode
wire side. Three linear motions and one rotary
motion around its centre-line are assigned to the
workpiece, and the wire has two rotary motions.
These two rotary motions are assigned to the wire as
the U axis and V axis respectively. There are two
possible arrangements for the U axis and V axis. As
shown in Fig. 3, one is that the V axis is at the bottom
and the U axis is assembled on the V axis (a). The
other one is that the U axis is at the bottom and the V
axis is assembled on the U axis (b). Obviously, the
scheme shown in (a) is more compact than (b)
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 Development of a six-axis WEDM 123

Automatic workpiece
and gauge magazine
X
Z

Y
Wire spool C

Tool blank CNC controller

Wire collection can

Adjustable tank

Wire
U

Wire guides
V

Fig. 1 Configuration of the six-axis WEDM tool

because (a) has simpler mechanical structures.
Therefore the scheme (a) is selected.
Different axis configurations for the six-axis
machine tool can fulfil the same function require-
ment. For a compact mechanical structure of
the machine tool, the designed unique six-degree-of-
freedom CNC WEDM is shown in Fig. 1, which has
three linear axes (X, Y, Z) and three rotary axes (C, U,
V ). The axis configuration makes the fabrication of
complicated tools possible. The tool blank is clamped
on the spindle, which can move along the X, Y, and Z
axes to locate the cutting position and rotate around
the C axis centre to index the tool cylindrical surface
against the wire. The wire orientation can be con-
trolled by two angular motions, namely U and V,
which orient the wire to form the cutting edge surface
equipped with the avoidance control of wire inter-
ference.
The unique mechanical structure configuration of
the U and V axes is shown as the bottom picture in
Fig. 1. The wire is supported on the U axis crank,
which is directly attached to the U axis motor. The

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124 X Cheng, Z G Wang, S Kobayashi, K Nakamoto, and K Yamazaki

1 3 3 1
1
2

3
4
5
6 2 2

(a) (b)
Fig. 2 Structure of the Z axis; (a) mechanical construction; (b) section view

Fig. 3 Two schemes for U and V axes configurations; (a) U axis on the V axis; (b) V axis on the U axis

3 INVERSE KINEMATICS MODEL OF THE

Table 1 Main specifications of the six-axis WEDM SIX-AXIS WEDM
X axis travel 350 mm
Y axis travel 250 mm 3.1 Coordinate definition
Z axis travel 250 mm
C axis travel 360
The coordinates for the six-axis WEDM are shown in
U axis travel 90

V axis travel 30

Fig. 4. All the coordinates have the same original
X, Y, Z resolution 0.1 mm orientations. SO is the machine tool coordinate. SM
C, U, V resolution 0.200 is the working coordinate, whose origin is built at the
Wire diameter 0.1 mm minimum
Wire guide 0.11 mm minimum hole diameter bottom face centre of the tool blank. SP is the coor-
Workpiece diameter 50 mm maximum dinate located at point P on the tool blank being
Workpiece length 300 mm maximum machined. SV is the axis V coordinate located at the
Workpiece weight 50 kg maximum
intersection point between the V axis centre-line and
the upper surface of the V axis rotary table. SU is the
axis U coordinate located at the intersection point
between the U axis centre-line and the plane which is
U axis motor is supported on the rotary table of the through the wire and perpendicular to the V axis
V axis and its position is fixed to the V axis rotary rotary table while U and V axes are all at their original
centre. positions. SE is the wire coordinate located at the
The main specifications of the six-axis WEDM are point E on the wire used for the calculation to cut
shown in Table 1. point P on the tool blank.

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 Development of a six-axis WEDM 125

OO XO OP XP
YO ZP YP
ZO OM XM
θZ1
ZM YM
OU
XU
ZU θY YU OE
OV XV XE

θZ2YV ZE YE P2(X2, Y2, Z2)

ZV
Fig. 4 Coordinates of the six-axis WEDM Pλ (Xλ, Yλ, Zλ)
O
P1(X1, Y1, Z1)
The motions of each axis are defined as x (axis X), y X
(axis Y ), z (axis Z ), uZ1 (axis C ), uZ2 (axis V ), and uY
Y
(axis U) for the convenience of inverse kinematics Z
model.
Fig. 5 Contact point definition
3.2 Wire cutting point definition
During machining, a segment of the wire takes part in axes or U and V axes. For the unique configuration of
discharging between the workpiece and the wire. For the wire supporter shown in Fig. 5, it is better to cut
calculation purposes, a relatively position-fixed point the workpiece at the negative direction of the Y axis
on the electrode wire is set as the wire cutting point due to the dielectric fluid flows along the direction
during simultaneous multiaxis motion machining. As from the positive Y axis to the negative Y axis. While
shown in Fig. 5, the point Pl on the electrode wire is a cutting the workpiece, the C axis will only be used for
reference position between the two wire guide end rotating the workpiece in order to make sure that it is
points P1 and P2 on the wire and is used for calcu- cut inside the wire or assists in realizing the full
lating the three linear machine tool motions to cut rotation of the tool blank to cut the cylinder or taper.
the required point or line segment on the tool blank. Therefore the orientation between the tool blank
Assume that the two end-point coordinates under and the wire is determined by the U and V axes. The C
the machine tool coordinate SO are P1(X1, Y1, Z1) and axis will be determined according to the workpiece
P2(X2, Y2, Z2). The wire cutting point Pl(Xl, Yl, Zl) can features independently in order to make the work-
be calculated as follows piece cut inside the wire. If the workpiece feature
does not affect such machining rules, the U axis
X1 þ lX2 rotation angle will be set just as 0.
Xl ¼
1þl For the cross-section of the tool blank shown in
Y1 þ lY2 Fig. 6, point P (XP, YP, ZP) is set as the point to be
Yl ¼
1þl machined. Due to the reasons mentioned above, the
Z1 þ lZ2 C axis rotation angle uZ1 will be solved using
Zl ¼ ð1Þ

1þl XP
uZ1 ¼ arctan ð2Þ
where l is a proportional coefficient and 0 < l < þ1. YP
The smaller the l, the nearer the cutting point is to the Given the tangent vector VT (VX, VY, VZ) on the
left wire supporter point P1, and the larger, the nearer workpiece surface at the machining point, the V and
to the right wire supporter point P2. When l equals 1, U axes can be calculated as
the wire cutting point is just at the centre point 2 32 3
cos uZ2  sin uZ2 0 cos uY 0 sin uY
between P1 and P2. The wire cutting point will be 6 76 7
defined according to the size and type of the tool being 4 sin uZ2 cos uZ2 54 0 1 5
fabricated, and it needs to avoid the interference 0 1  sin uY 0 cos uY
between the tool blank and two wire supporters. 2 3
0
6 7
·4 0 5 ¼ V T ð3Þ
3.3 Kinematics model
1
Because the C axis and V axis rotate around the same
axis Z, the orientation between the tool blank and the where uZ2 is the axis V rotation angle and uY is the axis
wire can be realized by the combination of U and C U rotation angle.

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126 X Cheng, Z G Wang, S Kobayashi, K Nakamoto, and K Yamazaki

2 3
OM 1 0 0 Xm2
X 60 1 0  Ym2 7
V
TU ¼ 6
40
7 ð10Þ
0 1  Zm2 5
0 0 0 1
Y 2 3
cos uZ2  sin uZ2 0 0
6 sin uZ2 cos uZ2 0 07
P (XP, YP, ZP) V
RuZ2 ¼ 6
4 0
7 ð11Þ
0 1 05
0 0 0 1
2 3
Fig. 6 Point on the workpiece cross-section 1 0 0 Xm1
60 1 0 YS þ Ym1 7
O
TV ¼ 6
40
7 ð12Þ
0 1 Zm1 5
Then the three linear axis motions are solved as 0 0 0 1
follows. The position vector MTP of the point P being
2 3
machined on the workpiece under the machining 1 0 0  M XW
coordinate can be solved by 60 1 0  M YW 7
M
TO ¼ 6
40
7 ð13Þ
0 1  M ZW 5
M
TP ¼ M
RuZ1 T P ð4Þ
0 0 0 1
where MRuZ1 is the 3 · 3 transformation rotation
matrix around the C axis, TP is the third-order col- where MXW, MYW, and MZW are coordinates of the
umn vector of the point being machined on the origin point of the working coordinate under
workpiece under the workpiece coordinate, where the machine tool coordinate, YS is the Y axis stroke of
2 3 the machine tool, Xm1, YS þ Ym1, and Zm1 are the
cos uZ1  sin uZ1 0 distances from the machine tool coordinate to the V
M
RuZ1 ¼ 4 sin uZ1 cos uZ1 05 ð5Þ axis coordinate, Xm2, Ym2, and Zm2 are the distances
0 0 1 from the V axis coordinate to the U axis coordinate,
Xm3 is the distance from the U axis coordinate to the
2 3
XP wire supporter guide of the X axis negative direction,
TP ¼ 4 YP 5 ð6Þ Xm4 is the distance between the two wire guides, and
ZP Zm3 is the distance from the U axis coordinate to the
wire centre while the wire is horizontal.
The wire cutting point E on the wire under the During machining, the point being machined on
machining coordinate can be solved by the tool blank has the same position as that of the
M
T E ¼ M T O O T V V RuZ2 V T U U RuY U T E ð7Þ cutting point on the wire under the same machining
coordinate regardless of the wire radius and dis-
where MTE is a 4 · 1 matrix, MTO is a 4 · 4 transforma- charge gap offset values, which can be added while
tion matrix from the machining coordinate SM to the generating numerical control (NC) programs. This
machine tool coordinate SO, OTV is a 4 · 4 transfor- means that the first three elements of the column
mation matrix from the machine tool coordinate SO vector MTP is equal to the first three position ele-
to the V axis coordinate SV, VRuZ2 is a 4 · 4 transfor- ments of matrix MTE accordingly. Based on equations
mation rotation matrix of the axis V, VTU is a 4 · 4 (2) to (13), given the geometry features of the tool and
transformation matrix from the V axis coordinate SV to the machine tool dimensions, a total of six axis
the U axis coordinate SU, URuY is a 4 · 4 matrix repre- motions composed of three linear axis motions and
senting the rotation matrix of axis U, and UTE is a 4 · 4 three rotation axis motions are solved.
transformation matrix from the U axis coordinate SU
to the wire cutting point coordinate SE
2 3 4 ERROR ANALYSIS AND COMPENSATION
1 0 0 ð1 þ lÞX1 m3
þl
þ lXm4
60 1 0 0 7
U
TE ¼ 640 0 1
7
5 ð8Þ The wire is guided by two wire guides as shown in
Zm3
Fig. 1, and these two wire guides are located inside
0 0 0 1
the crank of the U axis. Therefore the accuracy of the
2 3 U axis affects the wire directly and it is necessary to
cos uY 0 sin uY 0 analyse the U axis error and then make necessary
6 0 1 0 07
U
RuY ¼6
4  sin uY
7 ð9Þ compensations. When the centre-line of the U axis is
0 cos uY 05 not perpendicular to the wire in the X–O–Y plane or
0 0 0 1 not parallel to the Y axis in the Y–O–Z plane, the wire

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 Development of a six-axis WEDM 127

centre does not remain in the X–O–Z plane while the
U axis rotates without the motion of the V axis. Under
such circumstances, the wire has motions in the Y
axis positive or negative direction. This means that
sometimes the tool blank will be overcut and at other
times it will be undercut.
4.1 Positions between the U axis centre-line
and the wire in the X–O–Y plane
between EA3 in Figs 7(b) or (c) and EA3 that in Fig.
7(a); dY is the length of A2A3 in Figs 7(b) or (c); and dZ
is the length difference between A1A2 in Figs 7(b) and
(c) and that in Fig. 7(a). Then the positioning errors of
the three cases are as follows
dX ¼ jAEjð1  sin2 ðb1 ÞÞð1  cos b2 Þ
dY ¼  jAEjð1  cos b2 Þ sinðb1 Þ cosðb1 Þ
ð14Þ
dZ ¼  jAEjð1  sin b1 Þ sin b2

Figure 7 shows three possible position cases of the U

axis centre-line to the wire in the X–O–Y plane with-
out considering the possible positions between the U
axis centre-line and the Y axis in the X–O–Z plane. In
Fig. 7, the centre-line GE is the centre-line of the U
axis, the solid line AE is the wire centre-line, the
dashed line AF is the trace of the wire cutting point
while the U axis rotates from 0
to 90
, the double
dot-dashed line AD is the projection on the X–O–Y
plane of the trace of the wire cutting point while the
U axis rotates from 0
to 90
, the plane ABCD is per-
pendicular to the U axis centre-line and the X–O–Y
plane, line AF and line AD are within the plane ABCD,
b1 is the angle between the U axis centre-line and the
wire, b2 is the U axis rotation angle from 0
to 90
, b3
equals 90
representing the relation between the U
axis centre-line and the plane ABCD, point A1 is the
transient position of the wire cutting point A while
the U axis rotates b2, and A1A2 is perpendicular to the
X–O–Y plane. In Fig. 7(a), A2 and A3 are overlapped. In
Figs 7(b) and (c), A2A3 is perpendicular to the wire,
namely it is parallel to the Y axis, as |DA1| equals |DA|.
There are three cases shown in Figs 7(a), (b), and
(c): namely the U axis centre-line is perpendicular to
the wire (b1 ¼ 90
) and the U axis centre-line is not
perpendicular to the wire with b1 > 90
and b1 < 90

respectively.
Assume the positioning errors of the wire cutting
point in three-dimensional space are dX, dY, and dZ
respectively, where dX is the length difference
4.2 Positions between the U axis centre-line
and the Y axis in the Y–O–Z plane
Figure 8 shows three possible position cases of the U
axis centre-line to the Y axis in the X–O–Z plane with-
out considering the positions of the U axis centre-line
to the wire in the X–O–Y plane. In Fig. 8, the centre-line
GE is the centre-line of the U axis, the solid line AE is
the wire centre-line, the dashed line AF is the trace of
the wire cutting point while the U axis rotates from 0

to 90
, the double dot–dashed curve AD is the projec-
tion on the X–O–Y plane of the trace of the wire cutting
point while the U axis rotates from 0
to 90
, the plane
ABCE is perpendicular to the U axis centre-line and the
Y–O–Z plane, line AF and line AE are within the plane
ABCD, a1 is the angle between the U axis centre-line
and the Y axis, a2 is the U axis rotation angle from 0
to
90
, a3 equals 90
representing the relation between the
U axis centre-line and the plane ABCE, point A1 is the
transient position of the wire cutting point A while the
U axis rotates about a2, and A1A2 is perpendicular to
the X–O–Y plane. In Fig. 8(a), A2 and A3 are overlapped.
In Figs 8(b) and (c), A2A3 is perpendicular to the wire,
namely it is parallel to the Y axis, and |A1E| equals |AE|.
There are three cases shown in Figs 8(a), (b), and
(c): the U axis centre-line is parallel to the Y axis
(a1 ¼ 0
) and the U axis centre-line is not parallel to
the Y axis (a1 > 0
and a1 < 0
) respectively. Here dX is
the length difference between EA3 in Fig. 8(b) or
(c) and that in Fig. 8(a), dY is the length of A2A3 in

O C
X B
C (F) B
Cv F B
Z Y
A1
G β1 A1 β2 G
G F
A3 A1
A D
β3 E β2
A2 β3
β1 β2 β1 A2
β3
A D E
D (E) A2(A3) A3 A
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 7 Positions between the U axis centre-line and the wire in the X–O–Y plane; (a) b1 ¼ 90
; (b) b1 > 90
;
(c) b1 < 90

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128 X Cheng, Z G Wang, S Kobayashi, K Nakamoto, and K Yamazaki

Fig. 8 Positions between the U axis centre-line and the Y axis in the X–O–Z plane; (a) a1 ¼ 0
; (b) a1 > 0
;
(c) a1 < 0

Fig. 8(b) or (c), dZ is the length difference between
A1A2 in Fig. 8(b) or (c) and that in Fig. 8(a). Then the
positioning errors of the three cases are as follows
dX ¼ 0
dY ¼ jAEj sin a1 sin a2
dZ ¼  jAEj sin a2 ð1  cos a1 Þ
4.3 Error compensation
Based on the above analysis, position errors exist for
the actual wire cutting point; thus it needs to com-
pensate for these position errors to improve
machining accuracy according to the U axis rotation
angles. With the combination of these six positions
shown in Figs 7 and 8, there will be in total eight
possible positions for the position error of the U axis.
The perpendicularity between the wire and the U axis
centre-line can be easily assured by accurately man-
ufacturing the crank and accurately assembling the
crank to the motor. Tight tolerances have been given
to the crank part at the machine tool design stage
according to the above analysis, and equation (14)
has been used for an accurate adjustment during
assembly of the crank.
The radius of the rotary table is 500 mm and the
thickness is 20 mm. The high aspect ratio deteriorates
the flatness of the rotary table due to the deformation
after machining. Otherwise the cost of obtaining very
accurate flatness of the rotary table will be very high.
The best way is to compensate for the errors caused
by the position errors between the U axis centre-line
and the Y axis in the X–O–Z plane by equation (15).
The steps for the compensation are as follows.
1. Calculate the length of AE by equation (1).
2. Measure the wire cutting point position (XO, YO,
ZO) when the wire is horizontal.
3. Rotate the U axis by a0 degree and measure the
wire cutting point position (XM, YM, ZM) by an
ð15Þ accurate ball gauge.
4. Calculate the angular deviation of the U axis
around the X axis using
a1 ¼ arcsin ½YM  YO = jAEjð1  cos a0 Þ
ð16Þ
5. Verify a1 using equation (15) and change the
value of q
a1ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
if necessary ffi to make sure that the
value of dY2 þ dZ2 is the smallest.
6. Assume that the U axis angle is aM and the cal-
culated ideal wire cutting point position is (XC,
YC, ZC). Compensation of the wire cutting posi-
tion can be performed by
Y ¼ YC  jAEjð1  cos aM Þ sin a1 ð17Þ
Z ¼ ZC þ jAEj sin aM ðcos a1  1Þ ð18Þ
For the prototype six-axis WEDM used for the
following experiment, a1 is 0.0223
.
5 EXPERIMENT EVALUATION
Two experiments are shown in the following. The
first one is to fabricate a helical end mill. It is used to

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 Development of a six-axis WEDM
show the capability of the developed WEDM machine
tool for the fabrication of micro end mills with com-
plicated three-dimensional geometries. The second
one is to fabricate a hexagon end mill. It is used to
show the efficiency to fabricate micro end mills made
of ultra hard material PCD by the developed WEDM
machine tool. The finish machining conditions for
both experiments are shown in Table 2.
5.1 Complicated geometry cutting
Figure 9 is a two-flute customized helical end mill
with the diameter of 3.91 mm made of steel fabri-
cated by the developed six-axis WEDM. Simulta-
neously six axes are used for the helical groove
cutting in order to find accurate radial rake and
clearance angles. Before the U axis compensation, as
shown in Fig. 9(b), the cutting edge has been overcut
and the radius error is 0.1428 mm. After the U axis
compensation, the cutting edge is fabricated accu-
rately, as shown in Fig. 9(c), and the radius error is
only 10 mm, which indicates that good accuracy has
been achieved with the compensation method on
the developed six-axis WEDM. Also, two of the most
important angles, the radial rake angle and the radial
clearance angle, are measured (see Table 3). The
dimension measurements and contrast are shown in
Table 4. The error analysis is given at the end of this
section.
5.2 PCD tool fabrications
PCD consists of diamond grains that are sintered
with cobalt under high temperature and pressure.
The cobalt binder provides an electrically conductive
Table 2 Finish machining conditions
On Off Peak Peak Wire
time time current voltage tension
0.5 ms 2 ms 8A 80 V 0.9 kg
Fig. 9 Ø3.91 mm two-flute helical end mill; (a) three-dimensional solid model; (b) before U axis
compensation; (c) after U axis compensation
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129
network that can be removed with EDM [17]. As
shown in Fig. 10, a 0.5 mm diameter hexagon end
mill with a very accurate groove on the bottom face is
successfully fabricated by the developed six-axis
WEDM. The end mill is made of PCD material. The
PCD material has a grain size of 0.5 mm, hardness of
90–100 GPa, and transverse rupture strength (TRS) of
2.45 GPa [18].
Based on the measurement and the time records
from the controller, the following experiment results
are obtained. The radius error for the hexagon end
mill is 1.6 mm and the cutting time from rough to
finish takes 19 minutes of 10 times machining passes
along the profile.
The experimental results strongly demonstrate
high machining accuracy and high cutting efficiency
of the developed six-axis WEDM regardless of the
hardness of the material, while it is very difficult or
even impossible to grind the PCD tools, especially for
those tools with complicated shapes, using the dia-
mond grinding wheel.
The main possible reason for the geometry errors
of the fabricated end mills is related to the wire
guide. The diameter of the very accurate wire guide
for 0.1 mm diameter wire existing in the market is
0.11 mm. This means there is a clearance of
0.01 mm between the wire and the hole of the wire
guide. During machining, the wire positions
between the two wire guides are different from the
calculated (ideal) positions used for the CNC pro-
gramming. The wire position errors of the tilted
wire are larger than that of the wire that is not tilted.
Table 3 Angle measurements
Radial rake Radial clearance
angle (
) angle (
)
Wire
speed Nominal 12 0
Measured (before) 7.37 26.28
5 m/min Measured (after) 11.58 þ0.061
Proc. IMechE Vol. 223 Part B: J. Engineering Manufacture
130 X Cheng, Z G Wang, S Kobayashi, K Nakamoto, and K Yamazaki

Table 4 Dimension measurements and contrast

Before compensation After compensation

Nominal Value Error percentage Value Error percentage

Radial rake angle 12
7.37
38.58 11.58
3.5

Radial clearance angle 0
26.28
— þ0.061
—
Diameter 3.91 mm 3.6244 mm 7.3 3.8900 mm 0.51

Fig. 10 PCD tool fabricated by the developed WEDM

During the fabrication of the helical end mill, the
wire will be tilted most of the time, but for the
hexagon end mill fabrication, the wire does not
need to be tilted. Therefore the dimension error of
the helical end mill is larger than that of the hexa-
gon end mill. In order to achieve higher accuracy,
more accurate wire guides are needed.
The fabrication of the PCD cutter indicates the high
machining accuracy and high cutting efficiency of
the developed six-axis WEDM for the fabrication of
micro end mills.
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6 CONCLUSIONS
A unique six-axis WEDM tool has been designed and
developed for the fabrication of micro end mills with
complicated geometries and ultra hard tool materials
such as PCD. The inverse kinematics model for this
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orientations for the fabrication of tools. The error
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