An Investigation into Improving Worn Electrode Reliability in the Electrical Discharge Machining Process

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In this paper, the use of a strength-stress interference model to study electrode reliability during wear in electrical discharge machining has been reported. In order to improve the electrode reliability, the Taguchi method, which is a powerful tool for parameter design of performance characteristics is used to determine machining parameters for minimum electrode wear ratio in electrical discharge machining operations. Through this study, not only is the electrode reliability improved, but also the machining parameters that significantly affect the electrode wear ratio in electrical discharge machining oper- ations are obtained. Experimental results are provided to verify this approach. To estimate the electrode reliability, it is necessary to develop a mathematical model to analyse the mechanism of electrode wear during the electrical discharge machining pro- cess (2-4). In this paper, the use of a strength-stress inter- ference model (5) to study electrode reliability in electrical discharge machining is reported. The effect of machining time on electrode reliability can be evaluated based on this model. For reliability analysis purposes, how the machining parameters affect the electrode reliability is a very important research task (6). In order to improve electrode reliability, the Taguchi method (7-9), which is a powerful tool for parametric design of performance characteristics, is used to determine the optimal machining parameters with the minimum electrode wear ratio in electrical discharge machining operations. It is shown that the Taguchi parameter design can optimise the electrode wear ratio through the settings of machining parameters and reduce the sensitivity of the system performance to sources of variation in electrical discharge machining. In what follows, the use of a strength-stress interference model to study electrode reliability is introduced first. Then, parametric design using the Taguchi method for improving the electrode wear ratio is discussed. The experimental details when using the Taguchi method of parameter design and the strength-stress interference model are described for determining the optimal machining parameters for improving electrode reliability. The paper concludes with a summary of this study.