Title: Optimisation of electrical discharge machining process with CuW powder metallurgy electrode using grey relation theory

Authors: Naveen Beri, Anil Kumar, S. Maheshwari, C. Sharma

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Beant College of Engineering and Technology, Gurdaspur, Punjab, Pin 143 521, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Beant College of Engineering and Technology, Gurdaspur, Punjab, Pin 143 521, India. ' Division of Manufacturing Process and Automation Engineering, Netaji Subash Institute of Technology, Dwarka, New Delhi, Pin 110 078, India. ' Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, IGIT, Kashmiri Gate, Delhi, Pin 110 006, India

Abstract: In this paper, an attempt has been made to correlate the usefulness of powder metallurgy (PM) electrodes in electrical discharge machining (EDM). This paper explains the same with the help of experimentation on AISID2 steel in kerosene with CuW (25% Cu and 75% W) PM electrode. An L18 orthogonal array was used to identify the effect of process parameters (viz. electrode material, duty cycle, flushing pressure and current) on the performance characteristics i.e., material removal rate surface roughness and surface hardness. A grey relation grade obtained from the grey relation analysis is used to solve the EDM process with multiple performance characteristics. Experimental results have shown that electric discharge machining process performance can be improved efficiently through this approach. It is found that copper tungsten PM electrode gives better multi-objective performance than conventional copper electrode.

Keywords: electrical discharge machining; EDM; electro-discharge machining; powder metallurgy; PM; Taguchi methods; grey relational theory; steel; kerosene; orthogonal arrays; electrode materials; duty cycle; flushing pressure; current; material removal rate; MRR; surface roughness; surface quality; surface hardness; copper tungsten.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMM.2011.038163

International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials, 2011 Vol.9 No.1/2, pp.103 - 115

Published online: 30 Dec 2014 *

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