Abstract
In Electrical discharge machining operations, tool cost has the maximum contribution in the final cost. Copper is chiefly used tool material for electrical discharge machining process. Although, copper has very high thermal and electrical conductivity but it disintegrates more, especially during the machining of hardened materials due to its lower hardness. Therefore, an effort has been made to fabricate a sintered tool for electrical discharge machining operations and further evaluated it for wear characteristics. This article describes a study on electrical discharge machining using a sintered tool tip to improve wear resistance. In this work, three batches of tool tips using copper, titanium carbide, silicon carbide and graphite are fabricated by powder metallurgy. Initial estimation of the electrodes has been done by evaluating electrical and mechanical properties. Depending upon the desirable properties for the electrode, a best tool tip has been suggested and utilized for electrical discharge machining on hardened EN31 steel. Electrode wear rate, change in tool shape, volume of material removed, surface roughness and surface integrity has been evaluated in this study. The proficiency of the cermet tool tip has been compared with copper tool tip. It has been found that during machining with the cermet tool tip, the electrode wear rate and change in roundness of tool tip decreased up to 14.82% and 20% respectively as compared to copper tool tip. The decrease in change in roundness during machining also signifies the better shape retention of cermet tool tip. The volume of material removal is higher when cermet tool tip is used for the same set of process parameters. From the study of SEM micrographs, it can be observed that the recast layer is less and there are fewer surface cracks on the surface machined by cermet tooltip. The formation of micropores and pock marks are more predominant on workpieces machined by cermet tooltip. The width of cracks is lesser when cermet tool tip is used in comparison to copper tool tip.
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