In several industries, hard and brittle materials such as tungsten carbide, high speed steels, stainless steels, ceramics, etc., find a variety of applications.
For example, tungsten carbide is used for the manufacture of cutting tools, while high-speed steel is used for the manufacture of gear cutters, drills, taps, strawberries, etc.
If these materials are machined with the aid of conventional machining processes, the tool experiences extreme wear (while working with hard workpieces) or the workpiece material is damaged (while working with fragile parts).
This is because, in conventional machining, there is a direct contact between the tool and the workpiece. Large cutting forces are involved and the material is withdrawn in the form of chips. Huge amounts of heat are produced in the workpiece. This induces residual stresses, which degrade the life and quality of the workpiece material.
Therefore, conventional machining produces low quality parts with a poor surface finish (if the workpiece is made of hard and brittle material).
To overcome all these drawbacks, we use non-conventional machining processes for machining hard and brittle materials.