Experimental investigation and optimization of process parameters in electrical discharge machining process

Abstract

Manufacturing enterprises require materials of enhanced durability and moderate newlinedensities. Composite materials, to a greater spread, have satisfied the obligation of newlinetoday s challenging industries. Hybrid Metal Matrix Composite (HMMC) has received newlinemuch demand for elaborative functions in automobiles, mineral processing industries, newlineaerospace, etc. For machining of such hard composites, Electrical Discharge Machining newline(EDM) process was adjudged to be the most productive machining process owing to newlineexceptional material removal rate (MRR), with a lesser electrode wear rate (EWR) and newlinerelevant surface finish (Ra). After finding the conclusions from the organized literature newlinereview, Aluminum based metal matrix composite (Al6063-10SiC-5B4C-Mg) was newlinefabricated using a stir casting method in the present work. Scanning Electron newlineMicroscopy (SEM) analysis was conducted for testing the composition and newlinehomogeneity. The SEM images shows a uniform dispersion of the reinforcement newlinematerials. The spark atomic emission spectrometry (SAES) was also conducted with newlineASTM E1251 11 standards. newlineThe present work also comprises the parametric analysis, experimental modelling newlineand optimization of the EDM process. In addition to parametric investigations, newlinemodelling and optimization of the transform have been done to better understand the newlineexact behavior of the EDM course under diverse working conditions. The input newlineparameters range was decided based on machining capacity, a comprehensive literature newlinesurvey, and extensive pilot experiments. Afterward, the experiments were conducted to newlinestudy the implementation of the machining parameters such as Current (I), Pulse on- newlineTime (Ton), Pulse off-Time (Toff), Voltage (V), and Spark Gap (Sg) on machining newlinecharacteristics (MRR, EWR, and Ra) of EDM process during machining of Al6063- newline10SiC-5B4C-Mg workpiece using One-Parameter-At-a-Time (OPAT) approach. In newlinethis approach, only one parameter is varied at a time in a particular range, while other newlineparameters are kept at a constant value. Thus, the experiments on HMMC