Investigations on material removal rate and surface roughness of meso gear by micro wire-EDM

In this paper, response surface method (RSM) was used to predict and optimise the material removal rate (MRR) and the surface roughness (SR) of meso gear in micro wire electrical discharge machining (wire-EDM) process. Open voltage, pulse duration and pulse duration were considered as input factors. The numerical models of MRR and SR were established and the ANOVA analysis of MRR and SR were also conducted, showing that the models could be used to predict the experimental results effectively. For obtaining higher MRR and lower SR, the multiple response method was used to optimise the processing parameters. The optimal processing parameters were 85 V, 2329.91 pF, 13.06 μs respectively for open voltage, discharge capacitance and pulse duration. Ultimately, the meso gear was machined by micro wire-EDM using the optimal parameters, showing better machining quality. [Submitted 12 December 2016; Accepted 29 August 2017]