Investigation of wire electrical discharge machining of ZrSiO<SUB align="right">4p/Al 6063 MMC

Abstract

In recent years, more and more newer and hard to machine materials have been developed with an ever increasing demand of machining the complex shapes which has lead the conventional machining operations reach their limitations. In the present work, an attempt is made to machine the 6063 aluminium metal matrix composite, which is the combination of Al alloy 6063 reinforced with zirconium silicate 5% (i.e., Al 6063/ZrSiO4p) using wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM). Experiments have been designed through Box-Behnken design (BBD) approach of response surface methodology (RSM). The empirical models for response characteristics viz. cutting rate and surface roughness have been developed considering the WEDM input process parameters. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and F-test are performed to study the significance of process parameters on the response outputs. To aid in selecting the best combination of settings, the concept of desirability is utilised. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of machined surfaces is carried out to understand the effect of various process parameters on work piece material surface characteristics. The confirmation experiments have been conducted for the optimal parameters suggested by developed empirical models and it has been observed that the experimental results are in good agreement with the predicted results.