Effect of dielectric fluid with surfactant and graphite powder on Electrical Discharge Machining of titanium alloy using Taguchi method

Abstract

In this paper, Taguchi method was employed to optimize the surfactant and graphite powder concentration in dielectric fluid for the machining of Ti-6Al-4V using Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM). The process parameters such as discharge current, surfactant concentration and powder concentration were changed to explore their effects on Material Removal Rate (MRR), Surface Roughness (SR), Tool wear rate (TWR) and Recast Layer Thickness (RLT). Detailed analysis of structural features of machined surface was carried out using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to observe the influence of surfactant and graphite powder on the machining process. It was observed from the experimental results that the graphite powder and surfactant added dielectric fluid significantly improved the MRR, reduces the SR, TWR and RLT at various conditions. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and F-test of experimental data values related to the important process parameters of EDM revealed that discharge current and surfactant concentration has more percentage of contribution on the MRR and TWR whereas the SR, and RLT were found to be affected greatly by the discharge current and graphite powder concentration.