An empirical evaluation and optimization of performance parameters of wire electrical discharge machining in cutting of Inconel 718

Abstract

Wire electrical discharge machining is an alternative vying and innovative non-traditional machining process. This paper focuses on the experimental investigation of wire electrical discharge machining while cutting Inconel 718 material. Pulse on time, pulse off time, cutting voltage, flushing pressure, and wire feed are considered as process parameters; and machining time and surface roughness are taken as performance parameters. In improving the machining productivity and surface characteristic, machining time and surface roughness play a crucial role respectively. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze these response parameters in correlation with the input parameters. The objective of this work is to obtain minimum machining time, minimum surface roughness and to identify significant input parameters which influence these response parameters by statistical modeling. The experimental design has been accomplished by the L27 orthogonal arrays with three different levels of each machining parameters and experiments are performed. The scanning electron microscope has been employed for measuring the kerf of machining. In this research work, evaluation of observed data has been carried out by adopting the Taguchi method, analysis of variance and response surface methodology. It has been found that pulse on time is the most significant parameter which influences both the response parameters.