Application of Taguchi method for optimisation of powder mixed electrical discharge machining

Abstract

The aim of this research paper is to establish optimum process conditions for Powder Mixed EDM (PMEDM) in the rough machining phase using the Taguchi Method. In this work, the effect of graphite powder addition into kerosene oil (dielectric fluid of EDM) has been analysed. The process performance is measured in terms of material removal rate (MRR), tool wear rate (TWR) and surface roughness (SR). Experiments are performed on a newly designed experimental setup. The test results are analysed to study the effect of selected process parameters, on MRR, TWR and SR. The experimental results show that the addition of an appropriate amount of the graphite powder into the dielectric fluid, caused discernible improvement in MRR and reduction in TWR as well as in SR.