The Experimental Investigation of WEDM for Surface Roughness of Hardened Tool Steel: SKD 61

Abstract

SKD 61 is tool steel that recommended using for hot working as mold and die. . In order to making mold and die, Wire Electrode Discharged Machining (WEDM) has been most operation. The objective of this research was to study factors, which were affected on surface roughness and optimal parameters in WEDM of hardened tool steel. Material used in the experiment was tool steel JIS SKD 61 that was hardening by heat treatment process. Taguchi’s experimental design was conducted on 5 factors and 3 levels that L27 of Taguchi standard orthogonal array was chosen for the design of experiments. Power setting, off time off, wire feeding, wire tension and wire offset were chosen as factor for evaluation surface roughness. The importance level of the machining parameters was determined by analysis of variance (ANOVA). The optimum factors combination was obtained by using the analysis of signal- to-noise (S/N) ratios. Finally, experimentation was carried out an optimal solution of machining parameters for quality of surface roughness in WEDM process.