An Experimental Study on Processing TC4 with Nano Particle Surfactant Mixed Micro EDM.

Tingting Ni,Shufeng Sun,Zhiheng Chen,Qingyu Liu,Dongsheng Jiang

doi:10.3390/ma14206074

Abstract

Micro electrical discharge machining (micro EDM) is able to remove conductive material by non-contact instantaneous high temperature, which is more suitable for machining titanium and its alloys compared with traditional machining methods. To further improve the machining efficiency and machined surface quality of micro EDM, the nano particle surfactant mixed micro EDM method is put forward in this paper. Experiments were conducted to explore the effect of nano particle surfactant on the micro EDM performance of titanium alloy. The results show that the material removal rate of micro EDM in dielectric mixed with TiO2 is the highest when open-circuit voltage is 100 V, followed by Al2O3 and ZrO2. Lower tool wear rate can be produced by using dielectric mixed with nano particle surfactant. The taper ratio of micro EDM in dielectric mixed with nano particle surfactant is higher than that in deionized water. The surface roughness Ra of micro EDM in dielectric mixed with TiO2 can be 50% lower than that in deionized water. It is helpful to improve the machining performance by adding surface surfactant in the dielectric of micro EDM.

Highlights

IntroductionAcademic Editors: Albena Paskaleva and Marcin Nabialek
The material removal rate (MRR) of micro EDM in dielectric mixed with TiO2 is 27.5% higher than that in the dielectric without nano particle
Micro EDM experiments were conducted to explore the effect of nano particle surfactant on the machining performance of titanium alloy

Summary

Introduction

Academic Editors: Albena Paskaleva and Marcin Nabialek. Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Titanium and its alloys have been widely used in aerospace and biomedical applications due to attractive properties, such as high specific strength, excellent corrosion resistance, and cryogenic properties [1,2,3]. As a difficult-to-machine material, titanium and its alloys are difficult to be machined by traditional machining methods, especially when involving a micro-scale feature. Micro electrical discharge machining (micro EDM) is able to remove conductive material by non-contact instantaneous high temperature, regardless of the mechanical properties of the machined materials. Micro EDM is suitable for machining difficult-to-machine material, including titanium and its alloys [4,5,6]

Methods

Results

Conclusion