Experimental Analysis on Travelling Wire Electrochemical Discharge Machining S Mitra, Non-member Doloi, Member Bhattacharyya, Fellow Precision machining

of electrically non-conducting engineering ceramics and composites etc is an urgent need of present industries. The traveling wire electrochemical discharge machining (TW-ECDM) process is useful for cutting these materials. TW-ECDM process is a complex combination of ECM and Wire-EDM, which has tremendous application for machining advanced non-conducting ceramic materials, like, zirconia, alumina, silicon, nitride, diamond, glass, ruby and composites, like, FRP etc. The present research paper includes Taguchi methodology based parametric optimal analysis of TW-ECDM process for achieving minimum radial over-cut (ROC) and maximum material removal rate (MRR) during cutting of groove on Hylam based fibre reinforced composite workpiece. present experimentation, optimal combinations of five In the operating

parameters, namely, pulse on time (TON) as a percentage of total time, frequency, applied voltage (AV), concentration of electrolyte and wire feed rate (WFR) were observed for optimal MRR and radial over-cut. From the analysis of variance, it has been concluded that for achieving maximum MRR pulse on time, applied voltage and concentration of electrolyte have been found as the most important TW-ECDM process parameters. For achieving minimum radial over-cut applied voltage, concentration of electrolyte and wire feed rate have been found as the most important TWECDM process parameters. The additive models based on Taguchi

methodology for optimal predictions for both MRR and radial over-cut are found to be adequate. Keywords : TW-ECDM cutting; Taguchi method; Fibre reinforced composite INTRODUCTION The researches are urgently looking for advanced machining techniques to face the challenge of machining new materials such as, engineering ceramics and composites like fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) etc. Hylam is mixture of cellulose, adhesive based on modified epoxy resin and hardener. It has important properties like electrical insulation, moisture resistance, fire resistance, impact resistance, scratch resistance, abrasion resistance and corrosion resistance. Fibre reinforced composites are widely being accepted in structural and non-structural applications like household appliances, MEMS, electrical as well as electronic industries, switch boards and control panels. In addition more complex shapes, low rigidity Presently, various non-traditional structures and micro-mechanical components with tight tolerances and fine surface finish are often needed. available. machining processes, such as, LBM, EBM, WJC, USM, AWJ etc. are The inherent problems associated with these processes are thermal damage due to large heat affected zone (HAZ), high tool wear rate, low material removal rate, high surface roughness and poor dimensional accuracy etc1. With conventional machining the structure of FRP is delaminated, damaged and machined surface becomes rough. Due to its electrical insulation it is not machinable easily by other non-conventional machining method like EDM and Wire-EDM. To cope up with these challenges, the manufacturing scientists are making use of combined hybrid machining process which also reduces some adverse effects of individual process. Electrochemical discharge machining (ECDM) process2 can be
NS Mitra, B Doloi and B Bhattacharyya are with the Department of Production Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032. This paper was received on July 30, 2009. November 30, 2010. Written discussion on the paper will be entertained till

use used for electrically non-conductive materials. For slicing electrically non-conductive materials, traveling wire electrochemical discharge machining (TW-ECDM) is a viable option3. The TW-ECDM process is a complex combination of electrochemical machining and traveling wire electrical discharge machining. In TW-ECDM, pulsed dc power is supplied between the wire and auxiliary electrode. In this process, the conducting wire is always in contact with the non-conducting work piece material. Aqueous solution of NaOH, NaCl, NaNO3 and KOH, etc can be used as electrolyte for TW-ECDM. It is found that copper, brass, tempered steel, tungsten, molybdenum and brass coated and multi-coated super alloy etc can be used for material of conductive wire4. In this process, conducting wire is used as cathode and auxiliary electrode with larger surface area is used as anode. As pulsed dc power is supplied, hydrogen and vapor bubbles are formed and accumulated near the wire surface. With further increase of applied voltage, electric spark discharge occurs between wire and electrolyte across the insulating layer of gas bubbles. and vaporization of the work-piece material. As the job surface is kept in sparking zone, material is removed mainly due to melting The feasibility study of machining FRP with ECSM was made5. Keeping the above points in view, this research paper includes Taguchi method based parametric analysis on TW-CDM cutting of groove on flat surfaces of Hylam based are reinforced composite work piece. The verification experiments have been performed to test the adequacy of additive models for optimal prediction of MRR and radial over-it during TW-ECDM cutting operation. DETAILS OF EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP OF TW-ECDM SYSTEM TW-ECDM system has been developed to carry out experimental investigation and optimal analysis of machining characteristics of TWECDM process. The TW-ECDM system consists of sub-systems, such as,

mechanical hardware unit. Mechanical hardware of TW-ECDM system consists of main machining chamber, auxiliary electrode and job positioning unit, wire feeding unit and wire positioning unit. The purpose of auxiliary electrode and job positioning unit is to hold the job and control the inter-electrode gap. It helps to keep the job always in touch with the wire and also facilitate the contact between the hydrogen bubbles solved and the workpiece. Figure 1 shows the schematic representation of the TWECDM set-up. Figure 2 shows the Photographic view of the same set-up. The movement of the holding unit can be controlled by means of a gravity feed mechanism. A stainless steel plate with larger surface area issued as an auxiliary electrode. The auxiliary electrode is attached with the positive terminal of the pulsed dc power supply. By means of auxiliary electrode and job positioning unit, the inter-electrode gap can be varied. Minimum gap between wire and auxiliary electrode is kept at 30 mm. The wire feeding unit feeds the wire continuously as per required rate. A wie tension adjusting mechanism adjusts the wire tension. The wire positioning unit consists of three parts, such as, wire guide unit, wire guide positioning unit and active wire length adjustment unit. It helps to keep the wire in touch with the work-piece. For the purpose of experiment, the inter-electrode gap is fixed at 45 mm. For the present experimental set-up, the effective wire length is fixed at 35 mm. Using the mico-controller based stepper motor drive unit feed rate of wire can be set from 0.05 m/ min to 0.4 m/min. The rpm of the stepper motor can be varied from 1 to 80. The input voltage to the stepper motor is 12 V and the input current to the stepper motor is 4 A. The traveling wire electrochemical discharge machining system demands for voltage of 5 V to 120 V, current of 0.5A to 7 A and frequency of 50 Hz to 2000 Hz

depending on the rate of material removal and other machining criteria. A pulsed dc power supply provides the supply voltage from 0 to 120 V. PLANNING FOR EXPERIMENTATION Keeping in view the fact of properly controlling the machining performances, the objective of the present research is to study the main influencing factors among pulse on time, frequency, applied voltage, concentration of electrolyte and wire feed rate affecting the responses like material removal rate (MRR) and radial over-cut (ROC). Taguchi method based robust design principles6 have been used for the purpose of employing a L25 (55) orthogonal array to study the effect of process parameters. Each factor is assigned five levels as listed in Table 1. Table 1 Factors with their levels Control factors 1 (A) Pulse on time (TON), % (B) Frequency of power supply, Hz (C) Applied voltage, V (D) Electrolyte concentration, % (E) Wire feed rate, mm/min 50 55 30 10 50 2 55 65 35 15 125 Levels 3 60 75 40 20 175 4 65 85 45 25 225 5 70 95 50 30 300

Considering the required physical properties like tensile strength, melting point of the material etc brass wire of 0.25 mm diameter was chosen as cathode or tool. Hylam based fibre reinforced composite of 3mm thickness was used as workpiece. The electrolyte used here was KOH solution. KOH solution was used because of more mobility of potassium ions in electrolyte than that of sodium ions, lesser time for flow of discharge

current than that of in NaOH solution, more violent bubble generation of KOH than that of in NaOH because of its high mobility. The weight of the job before and after machining was measured and the difference was divided by the machining time to get the material removal rate. For each experiment, the time taken was 10 min. Olympus STM6 optical measuring microscope was used to measure the radial over-cut. The minimum length that can be measured with it is 0.5. The weight of the work-piece before and after machining were measured by SARTORIUS GC 103 digital balance, in which the minimum measurable weight is 1 mg and maximum measurable weight is 25 g. TAGUCHI METHODOLOGY BASED OPTIMAL PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS Taguchi method of robust design makes use of orthogonal arrays to determine the effects of various process parameters and to find out the optimal combination of process parameters based on analysis of signal to noise ratio. In the present study, L25 (55) orthogonal array based on five factors was selected as there are five factors and each factor has five levels. The experimental payout of orthogonal array and results of experiment have been shown in Table 2. Each experiment is replicated for three times to observe three readings of material removal rate and radial over cut. The values of signal to noise ratio were calculated for material removal rate based on larger the better quality principle and for radial over-cut based on smaller the better principle. The effect of each control factor on the material removal rate and radial over-cut were estimated based on the values of S/N ratio. The corresponding factor effects at different levels for material removal rate and radial over-cut in terms of S/N ratio are plotted in Figures 3 and 4, respectively. From S/N ratio plot it has been observed that for achieving maximum MRR the optimal parametric setting is A5B5C5D4

E1, ie, pulse on time as 70% of the total pulse duration, pulse frequency of 95 Hz, applied voltage of 50 V and electrolyte concentration of 25% by weight and wire feed rate of 50 mm/min. For achieving minimum radial over-cut to optimal parametric setting is A1B1C1D1E4, ie, pulse on time as 50% of the total pulse duration, pulse frequency of 55 Hz, applied voltage of 30 V, 10% by weight concentration of electrolyte of 10% by weight and wire feed rate of 225 mm/min. The results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) for material removal rate and radial over-cut are shown in Tables 3 and 4, respectively. Comparing the variances and degrees of contribution for each control factor from Tables 3 and 4, it is found that pulse on time, applied voltage and concentration of electrolyte are the most significant contributing factors for material removal rate and frequency and wire feed rate are the least contributing parameters. Fore radial over-cut, it is observed that applied voltage, concentration of electrolyte and wire feed rate are the most significant contributing factors and pulse on time and frequency are the least contributing parameters. The tabulated value of Fdistribution at 90% and 99% confidence levels are 2.48 and 5.41. From the analysis of variance, it is observed that the effects of pulse on time, applied voltage and concentration of electrolyte on MRR are significant at 99% confidence level and for radial over cut the effect of applied voltage is significant at 90% confidence level. The percentage improvements in the optimum condition based on the signal to noise ratio is listed in Table 5. From Table 5, it is observed that the percentage improvement of MRR is 70.23%, whereas, for ROC, the percentage improvement is 13.86%. The optimum parametric combination and their experimental observed vales of MRR and ROC are listed in Table 6. From ANOVA (Table 3), the value of confidence limit for MRR is estimated as + 0.722011 dB. The prediction error for MRR is observed as

0.7038 dB. As the prediction error is within confidence limit, the additive model for prediction of maximum MRR is adequate6. Similarly, the prediction error for radial over-cut is observed as 1.0018 dB. From ANOVA (Table 4), the value of confidence limit is estimated as + 15.2519 dB. Therefore, the additive model for prediction of minimum radial overcut is adequate. The cross-sectional microscopic view of the groove cut on the workpiece at optimal parametric setting condition of TW-ECDM is shown in Figure 5. It is observed that a distinct groove is formed but there are some minor irregularities due to the presence of some protruding fibres during TW-ECDM cutting of Hylam based FRP composite.

Table 2 Data summary for the experiment

Experiment Levels of the parameters Number (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) Average MRR, mg/min 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 1 2 3 4 5 2 3 4 5 1 3 4 5 1 2 4 1 2 3 4 5 3 4 5 1 2 5 1 2 3 4 2 1 2 3 4 5 4 5 1 2 3 2 3 4 5 1 5 0.26 0.31 0.35 0.43 0.43 0.31 0.35 0.47 0.41 0.30 0.42 0.39 0.44 0.31 0.44 0.40 (MRR ), dB - 11.701 - 10.173 - 9.119 - 7.331 - 7.331 - 10.173 - 9.119 - 6.558 - 7.744 - 10.458 - 7.535 - 8.179 - 7.131 - 10.173 - 7.131 - 7.959 Average ROC, mm 0.071 0.138 0.121 0.112 0.180 0.106 0.108 0.308 0.135 0.066 0.148 0.115 0.105 0.118 0.158 0.128 (ROC), dB 22.975 17.202 18.344 19.016 14.895 19.494 19.332 10.229 17.393 23.609 16.595 18.786 19.576 18.562 16.027 17.856

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5

2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

5 1 2 3 5 1 2 3 4

3 4 5 1 4 5 1 2 3

1 2 3 4 3 4 5 1 2

0.51 0.42 0.44 0.38 0.59 0.43 0.38 0.49 0.55

- 5.849 - 7.535 - 7.131 - 8.404 - 4.583 - 7.331 - 8.404 - 6.196 - 5.193

0.162 0.114 0.137 0.129 0.195 0.107 0.092 0.174 0.151

15.810 18.862 17.266 17.788 14.199 19.412 20.724 15.189 16.421

Table 3 Results of ANOVA for MRR Factors Degreesoffreedom 4 4 4 4 Sum of squares 25.2875 1.9085 27.5150 11.7040 Mean Square 6.3219 0.4771 6.8788 2.9260 Percentage contributio n 35.9804 2.7155 39.1498 16.6531 FValue 13.1378 0.9915 14.2951 6.0806

TON, % Frequency Applied voltage (AV) Concentration

Wire feed rate (WFR) Error Total (Error)

4 4 24 (12)

3.7470 0.1193 70.2813 (5.7748)

0.9368 0.0298 2.9284 (0.4812)

5.3314 0.1698 100.0000 (8.2170)

1.9468 _ _ _

Table 4 Results of ANOVA for ROC Factors Degreesoffreedom 4 4 4 4 4 4 24 (12) Sum of squares 4.8940 2.1930 61.8995 41.9480 27.7315 53.1908 191.8568 Mean Square 1.2235 0.5483 15.4749 10.4870 6.9329 13.2977 7.9940 Percentage contributio n 2.5509 1.1430 32.2634 21.8642 14.4543 27.7242 100.0000 (31.4181) FValue 0.2436 0.1092 3.0807 2.0877 1.3802 _ _ _

TON, % Frequency Applied voltage (AV) Concentration Wire feed rate (WFR) Error Total (Error)

(60.2778) (5.0232)

Table 5 improvements based on S/N ratio Starting condition, dB -11.5831 +21.7309 Predicted optimum condition, dB -3.34484 +24.7422 Percentage improvement, % 70.23 13.86

Responses MRR ROC

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Table 6 Optional parametric combination and actual observed response Responses MRR, mg/min ROC, mm Optimum parametric settings TON, Freq, Agv, CONC, WFR, 70 50 95 55 50 30 25 10 50 225 Values 0.6000 0.06501

CONCLUSIONS The TW-ECDM process has ability to perform the machining operation such as cutting on electrically non-conducting engineering materials, such as, fibre reinforced composites. From the observed results and analysis on TW-ECDM process, following conclusions have be drawn.

(i)

From the Taguchi method based analysis, it is observed that for achieving maximum material removal rate, the process parametric combination is found as pulse on time as 70% of the total pulse time, pulse frequency of 95Hz, applied voltage of 50 V, electrolyte concentration of KOH solution of 25% by weight and wire feed rate of 50 mm/min. For minimum radial over-cut, the optimal parametric setting is obtained as pulse on time of 50% of the total pulse time, frequency of 55 Hz, applied voltage of 30V, concentration of electrolyte of 10% by weight and wire feed rate of 225 mm/min.

(ii)

From the analysis of variance pulse on time, applied voltage and concentration of electrolyte are found as more significant process parameters affecting MRR. For radial over-cut the applied voltage, concentration of electrolyte and wire feed rate are found

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to be more influencing factors. Out of all the parameters, the applied voltage is found to be the most influencing for both MRR and radial over-cut during TW-ECDM cutting of Hylam based FRP composite. (iii) Based on actual experimental results t optimal condition, the percentage improvement for MRR and radial over-cut are 70.23% and 13.86%, respectively. As the value of prediction errors are within the corresponding confidence limits the additive models have been found to be adequate. The present set of analysis on machining characteristics of TW-ECDM process is useful for practical applications in the field of precise cutting of complex profiles on non-conducting engineering materials, such as, fibre reinforced composites and ceramics etc. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors acknowledge the financial support of UGC, New Delhi for CAS phase III programmes in the Department of Production Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

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Different Polarity Conditions. Journal Material Processing Technology, vol 200, 2008, pp 460-470. 3. V K Jain, P S Rao, S K Chaudhury and K P Rajurkar. Experimental Investigations into TW-ECSM of Composites. Journal of Engineering for Industries, Transactions on ASME, vol 113, no 1, 1991, pp 75-84. 4. W Y Peng and Y S Liao. Study of Electrochemical Discharge Machining Technology for Slicing Non-conductive Brittle Materials. Journal of Material Processing Technology, vol 149, nos 1-3, 2004, pp 363-369. 5. S Tandon, V K Jain, P Kumar and K P Rajurkar. Investigations into Machining of Composites. Precision Engineering, vol 12, no 4, 1990, pp 227-238. 6. Madhav S Phadke. Quality Engineering Using Robust Design. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1989.

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