Experimental modelling and optimisation of WECSC of polymer nanocomposite

ABSTRACT

Slicing of material using a thin wire reduces the loss of material and provides better cutting quality compared to any other machining techniques. Moving wire electrochemical spark machining (WECSM) is a hybrid, non-conventional wire slicing process, specially for non-conducting materials such as ceramics, composites and glasses. In this research article, alumina epoxy nanocomposite (AENC) has been taken as a workpiece. AENC is a polymer-based nanocomposite with a property of mixed nature such as ceramics and polymer. Due to its high electrical insulation performance, AENC is in demand in various applications. However, its mixed properties limit the machining capabilities for various applications. In the present work, modelling of the moving WECSM process has been performed using response surface methodology, and GRA with entropy method was applied for finding the optimum set of parameters. The results show that the optimal machining performances for material removal rate, surface roughness and kerf taper were obtained at 55 V applied voltage, 2.5 m/min wire velocity, 200 g/l electrolyte concentration and 200 µs pulse-on time.

KEYWORDS:

• ECSM
• Material removal rate
• Surface roughness
• AENC
• RSM
• GRA

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.