Electrical discharge machining of electron beam melting formed shrouded blisk

Shrouded blisk components are one of the core parts in aerospace engines. Five-axis or six-axis electrical discharge machining is once regarded as the best solution to manufacturing these components. The machining process, however, is time consuming and money cost. In this paper, an electron beam melting (EBM) and electrical discharge machining (EDM) combined method for shrouded blisks manufacturing was presented. In the new method, EBM was used to generate the near-net forming blank of the shroud blisk, and EDM was responsible for finish machining. The mechanical properties of the EBM formed Ti6Al4V blank was tested to be good enough for shrouded blisks. A visual identification method was proposed to establish the machining reference on the EBM formed blisk blank for the subsequent EDM process. The given example showed the required blade accuracy of ±0.03 mm can be achieved by the visual identification method. Through the combination of EBM and EDM method, the machining time of the shrouded blisk was greatly reduced by 54.8 %.