Investigation on the effect of WEDM process parameters on surface roughness

This paper presents a study that investigates the effect of the Wire Electrical Discharge Machining (WEDM) process parameters on the surface roughness of the EN 31 steel. Nine experimental runs based on an orthogonal array of Taguchi method are performed and it is subsequently applied to determine an optimal WEDM parameter setting. Surface roughness is selected as the quality target. An optimal parameter combination of the WEDM process is obtained using Taguchi method. The pulse OFF time is found to be the most influential factor for the surface roughness. Further, the results of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) reveals that the pulse OFF time is the most significant controlled factor for affecting the surface roughness.