Variation of electrode materials and parameters in the EDM of an AA7075-TiO2 composite

Abstract

Abstract The present study was carried out to analyze the effect of process parameters during EDM machining of AA7075-10 wt.-% TiO2 aluminum matrix composite (AMC). The composite was produced through stir casting. The EDM process parameters such as the electrode material (Cu, Br, EN-8), pulse current (5, 10 and 15 A), pulse ON time (300, 600 and 900 μs) and pulse OFF time (30, 60 and 90 μs) were chosen to study the effects on material removal rate, surface roughness and the electrode wear ratio. The experiment was carried out as per L27 orthogonal array based on Taguchi’s design of experiments. Signal-to-noise ratio and analysis of variance were used to identify the contribution of each input parameters on the output responses of the EDM process. The experimental results shows that pulse ON time and pulse current are the most significant factors for the material removal rate; pulse ON time and electrode material are the most influencing parameters for surface roughness and the electrode wear ratio.