The temperature of a plasma used in electrical discharge machining

The temperature in an electrical discharge machining (EDM) plasma was determined from measurements of relative intensities of the 411.85 and 413.29 nm Fe I spectral lines. The time-dependence of the plasma temperature was measured for individual electrical machining pulses. Under our experimental conditions (electrodes of NC6(+) and M1E(-), cosmetic paraffin as the dielectric liquid) the measured plasma temperature ranged from 8000 to 10 000 K for different current pulses. We observed higher temperature values during the initial phase of the discharge. Temporal characteristics of discharge electric parameters, light emission and the plasma temperature are presented.