Optimizing Main Process Parameters When Conducting Powder-Mixed Electrical Discharge Machining of Hardened 90CrSi

Abstract

In the current study, an optimization process of powder-mixed electrical discharge machining (PMEDM) process when machining cylindrically shaped parts made of hardened 90CrSi steel is reported. In this study, SiC powder was mixed into the Diel MS 7000 dielectric solution. Additionally, graphite was chosen as the electrode material. The multi-objective functions were minimizing the surface roughness (SR) and electrode wear rate (EWR) and maximizing the material removal rate (MRR). The used input parameters of the optimization process included the powder concentration, the pulse-on time, the pulse-off time, the pulse current, and the servo voltage. A combination between the Taguchi method and the grey relation analysis (GRA) method with the support of Minitab R19 software was used to design the experiment and analyze the results. It was found that the optimal set of process parameters that can satisfy the above responses are Cp of 0.5 g/L, Ton of 8 µs, Toff of 8 µs, IP of 5 A, and SV of 4 V.

Keywords

• EDM
• PMEDM
• surface roughness
• Taguchi method
• ANOVA
• SiC powder