Machining Efficiency Evaluation of Cryogenically Treated Copper Electrode in Additive Mixed EDM

Abstract

The present experimental investigations have been carried to evaluate machining efficiency with additive powder mixed in dielectric fluid of electrical discharge machining on Inconel 718 with copper and cryogenically treated copper electrodes. Experiments have been conducted to study the effect of input parameters viz. polarity, type of electrode, peak current, pulse on time, duty cycle, gap voltage, retract distance, and concentration of fine graphite powder on machining efficiency. Machining efficiency is evaluated in terms of tool wear rate (TWR) and wear ratio (WR). The optimum factor/level combination of process parameters has been determined by Taguchi's approach treating performance measure as single objective response. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is employed to indicate the level of significance of machining parameters for TWR and WR. The recommended optimal process input conditions have been verified by conducting confirmation experiments and significant improvement in TWR and WR is observed.