Investigation on the performance of wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) using aluminium matrix composites (AMCs) micro-channel

Abstract

This study focuses on microchannel fabrication of Al-10% SiC composite using Wire-EDM process with the applications of single variable and multi variable, optimization. This work was targeted keeping in considerations the wider scope of microchannel applications in the fields such as medical, aerospace, automobile, etc. In this research work, the experiment was conducted to achieve high precision and quality surface finish in terms of minimum surface roughness (SR), high material removal rate (MRR), low tool wear rate (TWR) and optimum spark gap (SG). The used experiments were design on the basis of Taguchi design of experiment approach. Four input process parameters were considered namely, pulse on time (Ton), sparking voltage (SV), wire tension (WT), and wire feed rate (WFR). For the experimentation task, the workpeice (Aluminum and silicon carbide (10% Wt SiCmicro)) material, in a desired shape was fabricated through stir casting process. The tool electrode applied for the experiment purpose had specification as, 0.25 mm diameter brass alloy wire (copper 63 percent and zinc 37 percent). For single variable optimization ANOVA (analysis of variance) was applied while as, for multi variables optimization, grey relational analysis (GRA) was applied. The results of the study indicated that, on the basis of single variable optimization, the highest contribution of Ton resulted in case of the performance measures, MRR and SR while as, for TWR and SG, the highest contribution of sparking voltage, observed. Furthermore, the findings of the study indicated that, on the basis of multi variables optimization, the optimal combination of input process parameters is, pulse on time 125 μs, sparking voltage 10 volt, wire tension 12 kgf, and wire feed rate 4 m min−1. These results also get support from the previous research works. The findings of this study be useful for microchannel manufacturing and other related industrial applications.