Experimental Investigation on Electrochemical Discharge Machining of Zirconia

Abstract

In the present industrial development, an essential usage of hard materials such as ceramics immensely increased. Zirconia (ZrO2) is one among to produce medical and dental instruments, atomic reactors due to its high strength and corrosion resistance. However, the machining of the zirconia is challenging without any thermal reactions. This research work focuses on machining the zirconia using one of the unconventional machining processes of electrochemical discharge machining (ECDM) with NaOH as electrolyte and stainless steel as a tool material. In this work, NaOH was used as an electrolyte at various levels such as 15, 20, and 25% concentration with distilled water. The other parameters such as voltage 80, 90, and 100v and duty cycle 30, 40, and 50% are used to machining the material. Response surface methodology is used to determine the optimum parameters to conduct the design of experiments in Box–Behnken design.