Material removal rate (MRR) study in the cylindrical wire electrical discharge turning (CWEDT) process

Abstract

As using wire EDM (WEDM) technology, complicated cuts can made through difficult to machine electrically conductive components, the cylindrical wire electrical discharge turning (CWEDT) process was developed to generate precise cylindrical forms on complicate, hard and difficult to machine materials. A precise, flexible and corrosion resistance submerged rotary spindle was designed and added to a conventional five axis CNC WEDM machine to enable the generation of free-form cylindrical geometries. The hardness and strength of the work material are no longer the dominating factors that affect the tool wear and hinder the machining process. The right selection of machining conditions is the most important aspect to take into consideration in process related to the WEDM operations. This paper presents an investigation on the effects of machining parameters on material removal rate (MRR) in cylindrical wire electrical discharge turning (CWEDT) process. In this research, CWEDT of AISI D3 (DIN X210Cr12) tool steel is studied by using of statistical design of experiment (DOE) method. AISI D3 tool steel was used in the experiments because of its growing range of applications in the field of manufacturing tools, dies and molds as punch, tapping, reaming and so on in cylindrical forms. The effects of EDM parameters such as power, voltage, pulse off time and spindle rotational speed has been analyzed on MRR by using analysis of variance (ANOVA). A model has been developed for MRR by using response surface methodology (RSM). In order to study surface integrity, SEM and micro-hardness tests were carried out in different machining parameters.