Design of near field magnetic probe for monitoring wire electrical discharge machining process

Wire Electrical Discharge Machining (WEDM) is a specialized thermal machining process that uses electrical discharge erosion technique for conductive materials. A high potential difference across the inter-electrode gap between the wire electrode and the workpiece in the presence of dielectric fluid leads to the pulsed discharges. Several sensors have been investigated for adaptive control and monitoring of the WEDM process by detecting and classifying these discharges. The present work discusses the use of a magnetic near-field probe to detect radio frequency emissions during the machining process. Numerical modeling, fabrication, and probe characterization using Device-under-Test (DUT) have been done. The fabricated probe is able to detect the radio emissions corresponding to the pulsed discharge occurring in the inter-electrode gap.