OPTIMIZATION AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF EDM PARAMETERS FOR ENHANCING MATERIAL REMOVAL RATE AND SURFACE FINISH ON ALUMINIUM T061 USING GRAPHITE ELECTRODE WITH TAGUCHI APPROACH

Abstract

In most industries, Manufacturing with machining plays a greater role because the formation of parts need surface finish during the machining process. The non-conventional machining processes are only method to machine hard materials. Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) is one of such processes used for removing the material in hard materials. it is non tradition by means of thermal energy instead of cutting force. In this study, experiments are carried out to find the optimum values of the parameters for addressing the issue of surface roughness in aluminium parts produced with graphite electrode in EDM.

The experiments are carried out on ZNC-250 die-sink electric discharge machine for drilling of AluminiumT061 work piece using Graphite rod as electrode. Experiments are designed using full factorial design of experiment (DOE) and run with L9 array various combinations of process parameters value. Taguchi optimization techniques were carried out to identify most important parameter having maximum impact on the surface roughness. In order to understand the response of the system, experiments were conduct out at three levels of Current (I), Pulse-on Time (T_on), Pulse-off Time (T_off) and Servo Voltage (V).

From the measured value of Surface Roughness (SR), it is found that the surface finish deteriorates with increase in current. Current is found to be the highest effect factor which has highest upshot on the Surface Roughness followed by pulse off time and last by pulse on time.