Influence of Different Electrode Materials during micro hole fabrication in Titanium grade 5

Abstract

The aim of the study is to investigate the performance of different electrode materials i.e., Copper, Graphite and Platinum during micro hole fabrication in Titanium grade 5. For this purpose, Voltage (V), peak current (Ip), Pulse on duration (Ton) and Pulse off duration (Toff) are considered process variables, while Material removal rate (MRR) and Overcut (OC) are considered process responses. This paper utilizes micro-electrical discharge machining, in which thermal processing of workpieces is not affected by the mechanical properties of materials. This utilizes the response surface methodology with a central composite design for carrying out experiments. The experiments were performed on a Swiss-built AGIETRON 250 die-sinking EDM machine with computer numeric control supplied by Charmilles Technologies. A commercial grade-EDM Oil (3033) was used as dielectric fluid during the experiment. It was observed that platinum as electrode material revealed higher MRR as compared to other electrode materials\ and graphite for lower values for Overcut (OC).