Performance Evolution and Selection of Controllable Process variables in ECM for Al, B4C Metal Matrix Composites

In recent years, the need for light weight MMCs products are becoming more valuable in aerospace, electronics, nuclear power plants and defence industries because of their specific properties. The machining of MMCs is a big concern and still an area of research. Al, B4C is one of the widely accepted MMC having specific properties like wear and impact resistance. This composite shows difficulty while machining with non-conventional processes due to various reasons such as higher surface roughness, tool wear rate and machining cost. In this experimental work, ECM has been selected for machining of Al, B4C composite to get better product quality & satisfactory machining characteristics. The voltage, feed rate, B4C %age of reinforcement and electrolyte concentration were selected as process constraints to conduct experimental trials. The Surface roughness, MRR and radial over cut were considered as output responses. The experimental outcomes were optimized by multi-parametric optimization using DoE and Grey relational analysis. The optimized parameters by multi-parametric optimization showed the considerable improvement in the process.