Experimental Study of Traveling Wire Electrochemical Spark Machining of Borosilicate Glass

Abstract

Machining performance study of newly developed machining processes has always been a challenge to make them industrially viable. Traveling wire electrochemical spark machining (TW-ECSM) is a newly developed hybrid process in the area of nontraditional machining process which can be effectively utilized for difficult-to-cut electrically nonconductive very hard and brittle materials. Present paper discusses the investigations showing the effect of input process variables on material removal rate (MRR) and kerf width (K _w) during the cutting of borosilicate glass using self-developed tabletop TW-ECSM setup. The experimental studies are conducted under varying applied voltage, pulse-on time, pulse-off time, electrolyte concentration, and wire feed velocity. The experimental results shows that MRR and K _w increase with increase in applied voltage as well as pulse-on time, but these performance characteristics decrease with increase in pulse-off time. MRR and K _w increase with increase in electrolyte concentration at certain value (25% wt.) and beyond that value they start to decrease. Moreover the machined kerf width and surface finish were also analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM).

Keywords:

• Borosilicate glass
• Hybrid machining
• K _w
• MRR
• TW-ECSM