OPTIMIZATION OF ELECTRICAL AND NON ELECTRICAL FACTORS IN EDM FOR MACHINING DIE STEEL USING COPPER ELECTRODE BY ADOPTING TAGUCHI TECHNIQUE

Mechanical Engineering

Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) is one of the most popular non-traditional machining processes used for machining conducting materials which are difficult to machine by convectional machining process. EDM is thermo-electric process in which metal melts and vaporizes and rapidly cool by dielectric forming debris and thus metal is removed by flushing process. In EDM, the objective is always to get improved Material Removal Rate (MRR) along with with minimal tool wear (EWR). Thus it is essential to estimate the material removal rate or productivity along with the minimal tool wear. It is required to estimate material removal rate and all over variables like tool wear for combination of tools and work pieces material during EDM process. Since machining rate and the resultant tool wear vary as per the choice of input machining parameters. So it is required to establish the process condition which result in increase material removal rate along with low tool wear. Since high carbon high chromium steel is being widely used for manufacturing of dies and moulds, thus it is selected as working material for electric discharge machining in the present investigation. The present work explores the machining conditions which include the effect of parameters like current, pulse on time, pulse off time, concentration of metal powder in dielectric on the MRR and EWR. It is attempted to find the optimal machining conditions for machining HCHCr steel using copper as tool. The experimental study was conducted on die sink type EDM located in institution central mechanical work shop. The design of experiment was conducted using Taguchi method of parametric design where in current, pulse on time pulse off time, mixed dielectric powder were selected and their effect on performance characteristic were MRR and EWR were studied. Experimental trials were conducted and result showed that current is the most significant parameter that influenced the machining response parameters like MRR and EWR.

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