PARAMETRIC OPTIMIZATION OF WIRE ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE MACHINING PROCESS

Abstract

Wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) technology has been widely used in conductive material machining. Titanium and titanium alloys (e.g., Ti6AI4V) are increasingly used in aerospace and automotive industries and in wide variety of applications, for example as medical implant material. Wire-electro discharge machining (WEDM) is an important non-traditional machining process for machining a variety of difficult-to-machine materials such as titanium alloys. Its performance, in terms of surface finish and cutting rate is affected by many factors. This thesis reports an investigation into the effect and optimization of machining parameters on the cutting rate and surface roughness in wire electrical discharge machining of a titanium alloy. Taguchi experimental design was used for the analysis and optimization of the process parameters such as Conductivity of dielectric, Gap voltage, Pulse on time, pulse off time and wire feed rate. Orthogonal array, signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio, ANOVA are employed .Through this study, not only can the optimal cutting parameters for WEDM operations have been obtained. The main cutting parameters that affect the cutting performance in WEDM process are also reported. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of this approach.