Brief Chronological Study of the Evolution of Electrical Discharge Machining ? A Review

Un-conventional or non-traditional machining methods generally create a phantasm in mind that these are very new. In reality these methods are named so because of the process mechanism in which no shear force is used directly neither there is any contact between tool and workpiece. This does not insinuate that these processes are new because 1694 saw the dawn of EDM when Sir Robert Boyle described the phenomena of electric discharges, 1952 saw the birth of electron beam technology and in the year of 1957 and Gordon Gould designed the first laser device. All these non-traditional processes have developed rapidly in last few decades and are now the state of the art of the present manufacturing technology. Among these EDM has accrued a lot because of its advantages over other non-traditional processes. This accruement is result of various unprecedented ideas those changed the countenance of EDM and made it more efficient and economic process among the non-traditional processes. This paper presents the literature survey to throw light on all those ideas those lead to the current state of the art of EDM.