Based on the characteristics of micro electrical discharge machining (EDM)

the modular design of control system of micro-EDM has been carried out

and the experimental platform of magnetic field assisted EDM system has been built. The human–computer interactive (HCI) operation interface was developed based on LabWindows/CVI environment. The micro-EDM drilling experiments were conducted to verify the stability of the micro-EDM machine. The experiment of single pulse EDM showed that the discharge duration increases with the increase of magnetic induction intensity. With the increase of magnetic induction intensity

the diameter of the crater and volume of the material removal has increased

the depth of the crate

r has decreased. The experiment of micro hole machining shows that proper external magnetic field can improve the performance of EDM significantly. When magnetic induction intensity is 0.3 T

the magnetic field can increase the rate of material removal whereas reduce the surface roughness. Material removal rate growth will be more obvious when the volume fraction of SiC

p

/Al is larger. Compared with no magnetic field

material removal rate of SiC

p

/Al composites with 65% volume fraction increased by up to 96.85%.