Abstract
Non-traditional machining processes are popular for generating complex features on the work piece. With advances in material engineering, new ways of cutting technologies has been emerged. However, EDM (Electric Discharge Machining) has gained recognition for producing extraordinary surface finished, intricate part geometries with accuracy and its ability to cut through difficult to machined materials. However, like every product cycle, manufacturing processes also require energy to convert raw materials into finished product. In manufacturing operations, energy input gives carbon footprints which have an effect on our environment. It is observed that reducing energy consumption is becoming the main concern of manufacturers because of enforcing environmental laws and due to the economics of the processing. It is argued that world’s 70% of energy consumption is consumed by manufacturing sector. The aim of the work was to identify direct energy demands in wire cut EDM. The variability in energy demand was explored by operating wire cut EDM at no-load and loaded conditions.Stainless steel S304 was used as a work piece. Experiments were performed on three different wire-cut EDM.Molybdenum wire, brass wire and copper wire were used as an electrode wire and distilled water was used as a working fluid. During the experiment, electrical current was measured and the variation of power requirement was evaluated. Power required by different features of EDM was compared with the existing energy models and factors were identified that consume most of the electrical energy. Further, a comparison is made between traditional and non-traditional machining processes. This contribution will help to assess energy efficiency of EDM technology and identify priority areas for improvements. This work is also significant for machine tool designers for optimum utilization of energy,reduced environmental impact and reduced production cost of their machine tool.
Highlights
Proper selection of cutting parameters, cutting tool material and geometry and machine tool selection is necessary for the production of high-quality products at reduced cost
The shear yield stress of the workpiece material increased with the increase of cutting speed because of stronger strengthening effect compared to softening effect leading to an increase of the cutting force
The present paper puts forward the importance of designing, development and testing of a cost-effective strain gauge based dynamometer and exploring JohnsonCook material model used in coupled temperaturedisplacement module of Abaqus/Explicit software, to study cutting forces under different cutting conditions
Summary
Proper selection of cutting parameters, cutting tool material and geometry and machine tool selection is necessary for the production of high-quality products at reduced cost. A cost-effective strain gauge based (mechanically decoupled, beam type static) dynamometer has been designed, developed and tested for finding the cutting forces during orthogonal machining operation which was not considered in the past research studies.Results of force variations measured experimentally through strain gauge based dynamometer as well as predicted numerically through simulation were compared with the published results during machining of Aluminum alloy Al 6061-T6 and found in good agreement. Finite Element simulation has helped researchers to predict different parameters like cutting force variations, temperature variations, and chip formation during the cutting process. These finite element simulations have helped to deepen the understanding of the cutting process and eliminating expensive experiments.In the majority of the researches, the simulations have been compared and validated with the experimental results [4]-10]
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