Parametric Study for Wire Cut Electrical Discharge Machining of Sintered Titanium

Abstract In 21st century, it has been observed that Wire Cut Electrical Discharge Machining (WEDM) has evolved as one of the most important non-traditional machining process. The popularity and its success lies because of its uniqueness towards producing different components which are very difficult to machine like titanium, tungsten carbide, Inconel materials etc and provides a platform in producing intricate complex shape which in many cases become impossible to machine by traditional machining methods. Pure sintered titanium bears very high specific strength, abrasion and corrosion resistances and thus machining this type of materials by conventional techniques becomes very difficult though this material finds immense applications in bio-plant and aerospace components. In the present work, WEDM on pure sintered titanium is studied. The different input parameters of WEDM like, pulse on time, pulse off time, wire tension and wire feed have been varied to investigate the output response like MRR, Surface Roughness (Ra), Kerf Width and Over Cut. A response surface methodology (4 factors 3 level) design of experiment (DOE) has been applied in this context to examine the machining ability of pure sintered titanium and results are found to be satisfactory and verified by confirmatory test. The machining parameters like pulse on time, pulse off time, wire tension and wire feed shows immense effect on the output responses and present study provide an optimal conditions of these input parameters to get the best output responses through RSM