Title: Performance study of tool materials and optimisation of pulse duration on EDM of zirconium di boride

Authors: S. Sivasankar; R. Jeyapaul; P.K. Kunhahamed

Addresses: Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology (Govt. of India), Tiruchirappalli-620 015, Tamilnadu, India ' Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology (Govt. of India), Tiruchirappalli-620 015, Tamilnadu, India ' Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology (Govt. of India), Tiruchirappalli-620 015, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract: Generally, ceramic components are manufactured through powder metallurgy route at net shaped production, but some features cannot be produced by this technique and hence needs additional machining. In this work, machinability of ZrB₂ is studied using electrical discharge machining (EDM). Desirability functional analysis (DFA) is used for evaluating performance of the various tool materials and optimisation of pulse duration. DFA used to combine multiple quality characteristics into a single performance statistics through three different cases. In first case, equal weights are assigned to all the responses, in second case weights are assigned using particle swarm optimisation (PSO) and in third case weights are assigned using genetic algorithm (GA). GA and PSO produce same result. Robustness of these methods is compared, GA is better than other two. Interaction of pulse on time with tool material is investigated using ANOVA and it shows that tool material is most significant factor.

Keywords: electrical discharge machining; EDM; ceramic; electro-discharge machining; zirconium diboride; ZrB2 machinability; desirability functional analysis; DFA; particle swarm optimisation; PSO; genetic algorithms; GAs; ceramic components; ceramics; performance evaluation; tool materials.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMM.2013.055735

International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials, 2013 Vol.14 No.2, pp.123 - 141

Received: 27 May 2012
Accepted: 01 Dec 2012
Published online: 26 Dec 2013 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article