Abstract
High-strength materials with complex shapes can be easily machined by electrical discharge machining process. In the present study, an attempt has been made to analyze the influence of wire electrode on Kerf width and workpiece surface roughness in wire EDM process. Due to its importance in the aircrafts and automobiles, Ti-6Al-4V alloy has been chosen as the workpiece material. The various experiments have been conducted based on a Taguchi L9 orthogonal array with various types of wire electrodes, such as conventional brass wire, zinc-coated wire and diffused coated brass wire. From the experimental results, it has been observed that diffused coated wire produced better surface finish with minimum kerf width compared to the other two wire electrodes. It has also been observed that the pulse off-time has more influent nature on machining characteristics such as surface roughness and kerf width.
NOMENCLATURE
WEDM | = | Wire electrical discharge machining |
Ra | = | Surface roughness |
Kw | = | Kerf width |
Ton | = | Pulse on-time |
Toff | = | Pulse off-time |
SV | = | Servo voltage |
WT | = | Wire tension |
EDAX | = | Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy |
BWE | = | Brass wire electrode |
ZWE | = | Zinc-coated brass wire electrode |
DWE | = | Diffused brass wire electrode |
SEM | = | Scanning electron microscope |