Title: Analysis of surface characteristics of AISI D2 tool steel material using electric discharge machining process with single-wall carbon nanotubes

Authors: S. Prabhu, B.K. Vinayagam

Addresses: School of Mechanical Engineering, S.R.M. University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 603 203, India. ' School of Mechanical Engineering, S.R.M. University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 603 203, India

Abstract: Recent developments in EDM have opened up new avenues for finishing of hard and brittle materials with nanosurface finish, high tolerance and accuracy. A single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) is having high electrical conductivity. The carbon nanotube is mixed with dielectric in EDM process to analyse the surface characteristics like surface roughness, microcracks in AISI D2 tool steel workpiece materials which is very much used in moulds and dies. Experimental results indicate that an excellent machined finish can be obtained by setting the machine parameters at low pulse energy. Furthermore, the SEM application yielded information about the depth of the microcracks is particularly important in the post treatment of AISI D2 tool steel machined by EDM. Later, the parameters are optimised using MINITAB 15 software and regression equations are compared with and without SWCNTs.

Keywords: single-wall carbon nanotubes; SWCNT; EDM; electrical discharge machining; electro-discharge machining; surface roughness; scanning electron microscopy; SEM; regression analysis; ANOVA; nanotechnology; surface quality; microcracks; tool steel; moulds; dies.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMM.2011.040857

International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials, 2011 Vol.10 No.1/2, pp.99 - 119

Published online: 30 Dec 2014 *

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