Abstract
Making miniature holes of acceptable tolerances in titanium alloys by conventional drilling is difficult due to frequent tool failure because of its poor thermal conductivity, high hardness, and high chemical affinity with cutting tool materials. Micro-electrical discharge machining (micro-EDM) has been found as a suitable method of machining of miniature holes in titanium alloys but it faces some problems such as improper flushing of the debris, arcing, short-circuiting, frequent adhesion of tool electrode with workpiece, and poor machining rate. To overcome all these problems, authors have developed a new ultrasonic-assisted micro-EDM setup and fitted to already available ZNC-EDM machine. The objective of the present work is to study experimentally the effect of gap current (I g), pulse on-time (T on), pulse off-time (T off), and ultrasonic power (U P) on material removal rate (MRR), tool wear rate (TWR), and hole taper (T a) due to ultrasonic-assisted hole sinking micro-EDM (UA-HS-MEDM) in titanium alloy workpiece. Experimental results reveal that introduction of ultrasonic vibration in hole sinking micro-EDM (HS-MEDM) has significant effect on MRR, TWR, and T a. A comparative observation regarding recast layer and circularity of microholes made by HS-MEDM with and without ultrasonic vibration has also been reported.
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