MEASUREMENT OF MICROCHANNELS PRODUCED IN AA6351/RUTILE COMPOSITE BY WIRE-EDM

Abstract

The fabrication of microchannels, in order to dissipate the heat flux generated in the complex parts of an electronic industry, requires considerable attention since it is a complex process. Some advanced machining process like wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) has been employed carefully for forming channels in material. However, the surfaces of these microchannels play an important role in dissipating heat energy. The present study focusses on the fabrication of AA6351/10[Formula: see text]wt.% Rutile MK grade mineral through powder metallurgy route, and their properties are evaluated. In addition, the forming of microchannels on the fabricated composite has also been done through WEDM process under varying machining conditions. WEDM process conditions considered are current, voltage and wire speed, and the response characteristics are kerf width, surface roughness and kerf depth. The hybrid approach of gray-based Taguchi coupled with PCA has been considered for optimizing the process parameters so as to get near net shape channels. The determined hardness of the composite is 64.5[Formula: see text]HB and the compressive strength is 220[Formula: see text]MPa. The optimized conditions are predicted and the regression model has been developed.