Experimental investigations of wire lag phenomena on wire electrical discharge machining of M2 tool steel

Abstract

A detailed experimental research study on wire lag phenomena, gap force, and wire lag compensation has been carried out on M2 tool steel material to overcome the error in dimensional accuracy for circular or curved profile job cutting in the wire electrical discharge machining. The design of experimental planning was made based on Taguchi methodology to determine the effect of the WEDM input control parameters on the wire lag related to different machining criteria, as well as the material removal rate, surface finish characteristic in terms of Ra values, spark gap, and specific energy consumption in this research work. The frequency, pulse on time, peak current, wire feed, workpiece height and wire tension, cutting diameter, and the span in between wire guide and job surface are considered as input control parameters for the present study. Parametric analysis shows that wire lag increases with workpiece height and wire lag compensation value increase rapidly with the decrease of job diameter. Parametric analysis is also carried out for MRR, surface roughness, spark gap, and specific energy consumption for optimum output. A further key finding is identified that the energy utilization efficiently increases with larger height job cutting in the WEDM process.