Tool electrode for and methods of electrical discharge machining

An EDM system for machining a feature into a workpiece, the EDM system defining a vertical direction, a lateral direction, and a transverse direction each mutually orthogonal to one another, the EDM system comprising:

• a tank defining a volume for holding the workpiece within a dielectric fluid;
• a tool electrode selectively movable to machine the feature into the workpiece and comprising a plurality of electrode elements spaced apart from one another and arranged in a digitized matrix representative of a tooling shape for machining the feature into the workpiece, wherein the plurality of electrode elements are spaced apart from one another and arranged in the digitized matrix by digitizing an analog electrode tool configured to machine the feature into the workpiece or a volume of the feature to be machined into the workpiece, and
• wherein the analog tool electrode has a width, and wherein the digitized matrix defines a vertical direction, a lateral direction, and a transverse direction, and wherein the number of electrode elements positioned along the lateral direction is defined by:
• nX=(w−gX)/(dX+gX), wherein nX is the number of electrode elements positioned along the lateral direction, w is the width of the analog tool electrode, gX is a gap between adjacent electrode elements along the lateral direction, and dX is an electrode element size along the lateral direction.