Experimental investigation on electrolytic in-process dressing (ELID) grinding of die steel

Abstract

Electrolytic in process dressing (ELID) grinding is drawing more and more attention for its in process dressing of the grinding wheel that not only eliminates the conventional dressing time but also increases the ground surface quality considerably. The present research focuses on the study of the effect of dressing voltage, electrolytic concentration electrolytic flow rate and depth of cut on two important machining performances, e.g., material removal rate (MRR) and surface finish of die steel. A Taguchi-based experimental investigation has been carried out to study the various process parametric effects and finally the process has been optimised. Confirmation tests were conducted to check the adequacy of Taguchi experiment. Besides, another set of experiments have been carried out to study the effect of inter-electrode gap on MRR and surface finish. A comparative study of conventional and ELID grinding of M2-hardened die steel has also been made. Under all experimental conditions, the ELID grinding process exhibited better performance compared to conventional grinding.