Experimental Investigations on EDM Process for Optimum Cylindricity and SR through less Machining Time for Al6061/SiC Composites

Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) is used for machining of hard materials with complex shapes. It is also having wide applications in machining of parts that are used in aero space industries. EDM involves high cost and consumes long time. The machining parameters of EDM process affect its performance measures. Achieving the better performance measures, particularly less machining time with good surface finish and good form tolerances are essential. In this work, Al 6061-SiC composites was chosen as work piece. Machining time (MT), Cylindricity (CY), and Surface Roughness (SR) are the performances considered in this work. The experiments were conducted with L₁₈ OA, with different machining parameters namely current, pulse on time, pulse off time and flushing pressure. Three types of copper electrodes namely solid electrodes, bundled wire electrodes and multiple hole electrodes were used for ED Machining. The performances of solid electrodes, bundled wire electrodes and multiple hole electrode are compared. It was found that the performance of multiple hole electrode is superior compared to other two types of electrodes.