Experimental investigation of process parameters for conductive graphite abrasive mixed EDM of WC alloy

Abstract

The aim of current experimental investigation is to perform and study the effect of input processing parameters for abrasive mixed electrical discharge machining (PM-EDM) of tungsten carbide alloy. Mainly, four input processing parameters have been studied, i.e., pulse duration, peak current, abrasive concentration and abrasive grain size for the machinability evaluation of material removal rate and tool wear rate. In this study, graphite (C) abrasive is suspended into the dielectric fluid to make the discharging process stable and uniform, which results in improvement of process mechanism and efficiency. However, this study highlights the mathematical modelling to express the inter relationship between input processing and performance characteristics with the help of response surface methodology (RSM). Results from the study shows the positive influence of graphite abrasive used for PM-EDM of WC alloy with reduction in tool wear rate (5.22%) along with the achievement of significant material removal rate (6.74%).