Title: Modelling of performance characteristics during sinking electrical discharge micromachining of Ti-6Al-4V thin sheet

Authors: Rajesh Kumar Porwal; Vinod Yadava

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad (U.P.) – 211 004, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad (U.P.) – 211 004, India

Abstract: Hole sinking electrical discharge micromachining (HS-EDMM) is used to create symmetrical micro features of relatively large depth to diameter ratio which is termed as micro hole. HS-EDMM is an efficient technology for micromachining of electrically conductive difficult to machine engineering materials. A predictive artificial neural network (ANN) model for the material removal rate (MRR), tool wear rate and hole taper (Ta) in HS-EDMM process has been proposed in the present paper. For this purpose, MATLAB with the neural network toolbox (nntool) has been used. Training of the model has been performed with data from an extensive series of HS-EDMM experiments on Ti-6Al-4V thin sheet workpiece material. The proposed model uses the gap voltage and capacitance of capacitor as input parameters. The reported results indicate that the proposed ANN model has been found to predict accurately HS-EDMM process response for chosen process conditions. [Received 3 May 2013; Revised 3 December 2013; Accepted 20 April 2014]

Keywords: hole sinking EDMM; electrical discharge micromachining; HS-EDMM; artificial neural networks; ANNs; back-propagation algorithm; modelling; electrical discharge machining; electro-discharge machining; EDM; thin sheet; material removal rate; MRR; tool wear rate; hole taper; gap voltage; capacitance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMR.2014.064440

International Journal of Manufacturing Research, 2014 Vol.9 No.3, pp.314 - 332

Published online: 30 Aug 2014 *

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