The field of applied wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) is rapidly expanding due to rapidly increasing demand for parts made of hard-to-machine materials. Hard alloys composed of WC, TiC and Co are advanced cutting materials widely used in industry due to the excellent combination of hardness and toughness, providing them obvious advantages over other cutting materials, such as cubic boron nitride, ceramics, diamond or high-speed steel. A rational choice of the WEDM modes is extremely important to ensure the dimensional quality of the manufactured cutting inserts, while roughness of the machined surface on the cutting edge is of great importance with regards to the application of wear-resistant coatings, which increases tool life. However, the stock control systems of CNC WEDM machines, which are based on assessment of electrical parameters such as amperage and voltage, are unable to timely detect conditions at which a threat of wire breakage appears and to prevent wire breakage by stopping the electrode feed and flushing out the interelectrode gap (IEG) when hard alloys with high heat resistance and low heat conductivity, such as WC, TiC and Co composites, are being machined, due to the inability to distinguish the working pulses and pulses that expend a part of their energy heating and removing electroerosion products contaminating the working zone. In this paper, the physicomechanical nature of the WEDM of hard alloy WC 88% + TiC 6% + Co 6% was investigated, and the possibility of using acoustic emission parameters for controlling WEDM stability and productivity were explored. Acoustic emission (AE) signals were recorded in octave bands with central frequencies of 1–3 and 10–20 kHz. It was found that at the initial moment, when the dielectric fluid is virtually free of contaminants, the amplitude of the high-frequency component of the VA signal has its highest value. However, as the contamination of the working zone by electroerosion products increases, the amplitude of the high-frequency component of the AE signal decreases while the low-frequency component increases in an octave of 1–3 kHz. By the time of the wire breakage, the amplitude of the high-frequency component in the octave of 10–20 kHz had reduced by more than 5-fold, the amplitude of the low-frequency component in the octave of 1–3 kHz had increased by more than 2-fold, and their ratio, coefficient Kf, decreased by 12-fold. To evaluate the efficiency of Kf as a diagnostic parameter, the quality of the surface being machined was investigated. The analysis of residual irregularities on the surface at the electrode breakage point showed the presence of deep cracks and craters typical of short-circuit machining. It was also found that the workpiece surface was full of deposits/sticks, whose chemical composition was identical to that of the wire material. The presence of the deposits evidenced heating and melting of the wire due to the increased concentration of contaminants causing short circuits. It was also shown that the wire breakage was accompanied by the “neck” formation, which indicated simultaneous impacts of the local heating of the wire material and tensile forces. Due to the elevated temperature, the mechanical properties the wire material are quickly declining, a “neck” is being formed, and, finally, the wire breaks. At the wire breakage point, sticks/deposits of the workpiece material and electroerosion products were clearly visible, which evidenced a partial loss of the pulses’ energy on heating the electroerosion products and electrodes. A further increase in the contamination level led to short circuits and subsequent breakage of the wire electrode. It was shown that in contrast to the conventional controlling scheme, which is based on the assessment of amperage and voltage only, the analysis of VA signals clearly indicates the risk of wire breakage due to contamination of the working zone, discharge localization and subsequent short circuits. The monotonic dependence of WEDM productivity on AE parameters provides the possibility of adaptive adjustment of the wire electrode feed rate to the highest WEDM productivity at a given contamination level. As the concentration of contaminants increases, the feed rate of the wire electrode should decrease until the critical value of the diagnostic parameter Kf, at which the feed stops and the IEG flushes out, is reached. The link between the AE signals and physicomechanical nature of the WEDM of advanced cutting materials with high heat resistance and low heat conductivity in different cutting modes clearly shows that the monitoring of AE signals can be used as a main or supplementary component of control systems for CNC WEDM machines.

The article is related to the research of the parameters of vibroacoustic emission for development of the monitoring and adaptive control system for electrical discharge machining. The classical control system based on a response of electrical parameters does not give an adequate data in the cases of a new class of materials processing as conductive ceramics reinforced by conductive nano additives and carbon nanotubes and whiskers. The idle pulses, which are working on the destruction of the erosion products in the gap, count as working pulses. The application of the monitoring and control tools based on vibroacoustic emission gives adequate data about conditions in the working zone. The developed system is available to count only impulses involved in working on the destruction of the workpiece. The experiments were conducted on the samples of materials with a low melting point as austenitic steel and aluminum alloy, and hard alloys. The records of vibroacoustic signals were analyzed for detection of the monitoring and adaptive control criteria.

Creating systems for monitoring technology processes based on concentrated energy flows is an urgent and challenging task for automated production. Similar processes accompany such processing technologies: intensive thermal energy transfer to the substance, heating, development of the melting and evaporation or sublimation, ionization, and expansion of the released substance. It is accompanied by structural and phase rearrangements, local changes in volumes, chemical reactions that cause perturbations of the elastic medium, and the propagation of longitudinal and transverse waves in a wide frequency range. Vibrational energy propagates through the machine’s elastic system, making it possible to register vibrations on surfaces remotely. Vibration parameters can be used in monitoring systems to prevent negative phenomena during processing and to be a tool for understanding the processes’ kinetics. In some cases, it is the only source of information about the progress in the processing zone.

A feature of radiation-beam technologies is similar processes associated with phase transformations and chemical reactions that cause changes in the volume of matter, accompanied by the vibroacoustic energy release distributed through the equipment flexible system in a wide frequency range (up to 40 kHz and high for 150 ms). The vibroacoustic signal amplitude accompanying radiation-beam technologies depends on the power density and process performance. The accelerated growth of the high-frequency components of the vibroacoustic signal is associated with the activation of the processes of volumetric boiling and evaporation/sublimation of the material. The K_f parameter, introduced as the ratio of the effective amplitudes of the low-frequency and high-frequency ranges of the vibroacoustic signal, monitors the results of high-energy flows’ impact on the material in the direction of vaporization/sublimation. The K_f parameter decrease tendency shows an increase in the proportion of the substance evaporated during laser treatment. The K_f parameter control allows the indication of the short-circuit approach in electric discharge machining, which allows increased productivity and reliability of processing. The monitoring of the K_f parameter helps to select rational processing modes, preventing excessive evaporation, providing the necessary intensity of the impact power to trigger the necessary chemical reactions in surface electron-beam alloying.

Technologies associated with using concentrated energy flows are increasingly used in industry due to the need to manufacture products made of hard alloys and other difficult-to-process materials. This work is devoted to expanding knowledge about the processes accompanying the impact of laser pulses on material surfaces. The features of these processes are reflected in the acoustic emission signals, the parameters of which were used as a tool for understanding the accompanying phenomena. The influence of plasma formations above the material surface on self-oscillatory phenomena and the self-regulation process that affects pulse productivity were examined. The stability of plasma formation over time, its influence on the pulse performance, and changes in the heat flux power density were considered. Experimental data show the change in the power density transmitted by laser pulses to the surface when the focal plane is shifted. Experiments on the impact of laser pulses of different powers and durations on the surface of a hard alloy showed a relationship between the amplitude of acoustic emission and the pulse performance. This work shows the data content of acoustic emission signals and the possibility of expanding the research of concentrated energy flow technologies.

In this work, a new approach to high-speed multi-coordinate milling was developed. The new approach is based on a new model of trochoidal machining; this is, in turn, based on the theoretical thickness of a chip and its ratio to the cutting edge’s radius, allowing us to establish the vibroacoustic indicators of cutting efficiency. The new model can be used for the real-time assessment of prevailing cutting mechanisms and chip formation. A set of new indicators and parameters for trochoidal high-speed milling (HSM), which can be used to calculate tool paths during technological preparation of slotting, was determined and verified. The size effect in the multi-coordinate HSM of slots on cast iron was identified based on the dependency of vibroacoustic signals on the cutting tooth’s geometry, HSM’a operational machining modes, theoretical chip thicknesses, the sizes of the cut chips, and the quality/roughness of the surface being machined. Based on the analysis of vibroacoustic signals, a set of the most important indicators for monitoring HSM and determining cutting and crack-formation mechanisms during chip deformation was derived. Based on the new model, recommendations for monitoring HSM and for assigning the tool path relative to the workpiece during production preparation were developed and validated.