Machining Performance of Slotted-Electrical Discharge Diamond Face Grinding of Al/SiC/Gr Composite

Abstract

Electrical discharge diamond grinding (EDDG) is a well-known process for machining of electrically conductive hard and brittle materials. Even though, EDDG process suffers with several drawbacks such as loss of diamond particles without wear, high wheel wear, accumulation of debris into gap, abnormal arcing, etc. The aim of this study is to minimize the drawbacks of EDDG process with an alternative application of spark erosion and abrasive abrasion actions. Such developed process is knows as slotted-electrical discharge diamond grinding (S-EDDG) process. The performance of developed process was tested on face grinding mode of the S-EDDG during machining of the aluminum–silicon carbide–graphite (Al/SiC/Gr) workpiece. The role of current, pulse on-time, pulse off-time, wheel rotation per minute (RPM), and abrasive grit number has been investigated on material removal rate (MRR) and average surface roughness (Ra). It has been observed that higher wheel RPM gives higher MRR with better surface finish due to increase in flushing efficiency.