Performance improvement of machining parameters in electrical discharge machining process of tool steel 2714

Abstract

Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is an extremely prominent machining process among newly developed non-traditional machining techniques for difficult-to-cut materials. Though a lot of research has been done to improve the process performance, optimal selection of process parameters for the best performance measures still remains a challenge. In this work, the performance of electrical discharge machining process when cutting hot work tool steel 2714 with copper electrodes has been investigated. Orthogonal array of L27 (3*4) based on the Taguchi experimental design is utilised to plan the experiments. Raw data is assessed by the analysis of variance (ANOVA) to find optimal conditions for response parameters. The main machining parameters such as pulse-on time, pulse-off time, discharge current and average machining voltage are chosen to determine the EDM response parameters such as material removal rate, surface roughness and gap size. Response tables and graphs are used to find the optimal parameter level in the EDM process.