Assessing the Influence of Surfactant and B4C Powder Mixed in Dielectric Fluid on EDM of Titanium Alloy

• Published in: SILICON Vol. 11; no. 4; pp. 1731 - 1743
• Main Authors: Kolli, Murahari, Kumar, Adepu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-08-2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Additives; Boron carbide; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Dielectrics; Electron microscopes; Empirical analysis; Environmental Chemistry; Inorganic Chemistry; Lasers; Material removal rate (machining); Materials Science; Optical Devices; Optics; Original Paper; Orthogonal arrays; Parameter identification; Photomicrographs; Photonics; Polymer Sciences; Process parameters; Surface roughness; Surfactants; Taguchi methods; Thickness; Titanium alloys; Titanium base alloys; Variance analysis; Titanium alloy; B; Surfactant; Taguchi L; C powder; Electrical discharge machining
• DOI: 10.1007/s12633-017-9701-3
• EISSN: 1876-9918
• ISSN: 1876-990X

The aim of the present investigation is to optimize process parameters by mixing various additives in dielectric fluid on EDM of Ti-6Al-4V alloy using Taguchi technique. Span20 surfactant and B
4
C powder are considered as additives. Span20 surfactant mixed in dielectric fluid degrades the agglomeration of tar debris and powder particles. It also improves the discharge gap and breakdown strength. Five input process parameters were selected, viz. discharge current (I
p
), pulse on time (T
on
), pulse off time (T
off
), B
4
C powder concentration (B
4
C Con.) and surfactant concentration (Surf Con.) and varied to explore their performances on Material Removal Rate (MRR), Surface Roughness (SR) and Recast Layer Thickness (RLT). In this study, Taguchi L
27
Orthogonal Array (OA) was adopted for planning and designing the experiments. It was observed from the experimental results that the additives in dielectric fluid significantly improved MRR, reduced SR and RLT. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test has identified that I
p
, T
on
and Surf con., are important process parameters affecting MRR and SR; I
p
, T
on
, Surf con., and B
4
C con., were highly relevant process parameters influencing RLT. An empirical expression for MRR, SR and RLT was developed by using statistical software. Additionally, surface modification was studied at optimized EDM conditions by using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) micrographs.