Title: Machining of thin sections using multi-pass wire electrical discharge machining process

Authors: Deba Kumar Sarma; Meinam Annebushan Singh

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Meghalaya, Shillong – 793003, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Meghalaya, Shillong – 793003, India

Abstract: The increasing application of fine metallic sections in various sophisticated areas has led to the growth of advanced machining technique to produce thin metallic sections. Wire electrical discharge machining process can prove to be an effective means to machine such sections. The current work identifies the thin wall machining of H13 tool steel using Taguchi's design. An optimal parametric setting is identified using a regression model for lower kerf width (k_f) and higher machining rate. The decrease in k_f and increase in machining rate is found to be highly dominated by the variation of the input parametric conditions. Machining of thin wall sections is performed to identify the extent of minimum sections that can be machined. A mesh-like structure is observed with wall thickness of less than 80 μm. Further, to improve the surface and edge characteristics, multi pass trimming process is incorporated.

Keywords: wire electrical discharge machining; WEDM; multipass; thin wall; recast layer; Taguchi; regression; optimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMM.2020.104012

International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials, 2020 Vol.22 No.1, pp.62 - 78

Received: 06 Sep 2018
Accepted: 12 Dec 2018
Published online: 06 Dec 2019 *

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