Effect of EDM Process Parameters on Al-ZrO2 Composite Using Taguchi Orthogonal Array Design

Abstract

In the process technology, as there are numerous advances at rapid rate, a large number of new materials are being developed everyday. These materials have the combination of properties, like light weight, corrosive resistance, high strength etc. which is most easy to obtain in general. The important aspect is that they satisfy the demand of today‘s industry, but the major problem is that it is very difficult to machine. So, in order to manipulate them, newer machining methods have been developed. These methods are more efficient than the conventional one‘s. Electric discharge machining is one of the most widely used methods among the new techniques. The main reason behind the popularity of Electric Discharge Machining is that its capability of machining the hard material and complicated shapes. The intent of present study is to study the effect of process parameters on Surface Roughness , Material Removal Rate and Tool Wear Rate in electric discharge machining of aluminium alloy LM13+5%ZrO2 metal matrix composites. The design of experiments approach using Taguchi method is used to optimise the parameters like Peak Current, Tool Material and Pulse-On Time in EDM of Al Metal Matrix composites for minimum Surface Roughness and Tool Wear Rate, and maximum Material Removal Rate. T-3822M electric discharge machine manufactured by VICTORY ELECTROMECH is used to machine the Metal Matrix Composite. Experiments are conducted based on the Taguchi parameter design by varying the Peak Current, Pulse On-Time and Tool Material. Signal-to-noise ratio and analysis of variance are used to study the effect of parameters on the Surface Roughness, Material Removal Rate and Tool Wear Rate.