International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology - IJORAT

Vol. 2, Issue 2, FEBRUARY 2016

OPTIMIZATION OF EDM PROCESS

PARAMETERS ON ALUMINIUM ALLOY
6061/5% SiC COMPOSITE
R.Santhana Lakshmi1, J.Lakshmipathy2, S.David Blessley3
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Scad College of Engineering and Technology, Cheranmahadevi, India1.
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, FX Engineering College, Tirunelveli, India 2.
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, S.Veerasamy Chettiar College of Engineering and Technology, Puliangudi,
India3.
Abstract: Electric discharge machining (EDM) is one of the non-traditional processes used for machining metal
matrix composites. Metal matrix composites are used in aero scope, automobile industries and also in medical field.
In this work, the metal matrix composite, AA 6061 reinforced with 5wt% SiC particles were prepared by stir
casting method. Determination of optimal process parameter is quite difficult in EDM machining process if
maximum Material Removal Rate (MRR) and good Surface Roughness (SR) are concerned. Experiments were
carried out using Design of Experiment (DOE) techniques. Optimization techniques were proposed to optimize the
EDM process parameter. The gap Voltage, pulse Current, pulse on time and pulse off time Concentration are
considered as decision variables whereas MRR and SR are the machining parameters used in the proposed work.
Keywords: 6061AA/5%composites, EDM, Metal Removal Rate, Surface roughness.

I. INTRODUCTION
Metal matrix composites (MMC) are gaining
increasing attention for applications in aerospace,
defense, and automobile industries. These materials have
been used in automobile brake rotors and various
components in internal combustion engines. The
limitation of MMC is that the machining of these
composites is very difficult due to the highly abrasive
nature of ceramic reinforcements. Non-conventional
machining techniques such as electro-discharge
machining (EDM), electron beam machining (EBM) and
electrochemical machining (ECM) have also been
utilized for machining. Electro discharge machining
(EDM) is a non-traditional process used mainly to cut
hard or difficult metals, where the application of a
traditional process is not convenient. Optimization
techniques are required to identify the optimal
combination of parameters for maximizing the metal
removal rate (MRR) and minimizing the surface
roughness in EDM process. Quite a few researches have
tried to optimize the machining performance.
S.Gopala Kannan et al.[1] The metal used in this study
(AA 7075 reinforced with 10% wt of B 4C particles) was
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prepared by stainless casting method. The influence of

the process parameters such as pulse current, gap
voltage, pulse on time and plus off time on material
removal rate and surface roughness are investigated. The
objective was to identify the significant process
parameters that affect the output characteristics and to
develop for MRR and SR. T.M.Chenthil Jegan et al.[2] It
describes the selection of machining parameters,
discharge current, pulse on time and pulse off time in
EDM for the machining of AISI202 stainless steel
material. Grey relational analysis is used for optimizing
the machining parameters MRR and surface roughness.
It conforms discharge current as the main parameter
affecting in the MRR.
II. FABRICATION OF 6061AA/5%SiC
COMPOSITE
The fabrication of AA 6061 with 5wt% SiC was
carried out by stir casting technique. A measured amount
of silicon carbide particles were preheated at around
o

800 C for 2 hrs to make their surfaces oxidized. A

measured amount of 6061 Aluminium alloy ingots were
taken in a graphite crucible and melted in an electrical
furnace. Pre-heated silicon carbide particles were added
to the melt.

International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology - IJORAT

Vol. 2, Issue 2, FEBRUARY 2016

After that, the melt was stirred for 20 minutes at

an average mixing speed of 150-200 rpm to make a
vortex in order to disperse the particles in the melt. After
thorough stirring, the melt was poured into steel moulds
of 35 mm diameter and 100 mm length and allowed to
cool to obtain cast rods. The samples of 35mm diameter
and 20 mm length were prepared from these cast rods.
Stir casting equipment used for the fabrication of
composites is shown in Fig. 1.

solve this problem, the Taguchi method uses a special

design of orthogonal arrays to study the entire parameter
space with only a small number of experiments.
Taguchi methods have been widely utilized in
engineering analysis and it consists of a plan of
experiments with the objective of acquiring data in a
controlled way in order to obtain information about the
behavior of a given process. The greatest advantage of
this method is the saving of effort in conducting
experiments, saving experimental time, reducing the
cost, and discovering significant factors quickly.
Taguchis robust design method is a powerful tool for the
design of a high-quality system. In addition to the S/N
ratio, a statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA) can be
employed to indicate the impact of process parameters
on metal removal valves.
Normally, the full factor would require 3 4 =81
experimental runs. However, the effect and experimental
cost for such a design may unrealistic. According to the
Taguchi quality design concept, L9 orthogonal array is
used for the experimentation. Table 2 shows the EDM
parameters used as control factors and their levels.
MINITAB15 software is used for graphical analysis of
the experimental data.

Fig. 1 stir casting equipment

Sl.
No.

The composition of AA 6061 was shown in Table 1.

1.

Table 1 Composition of 6061AA by weight %

2.

Component
Aluminium
Magnesium
Silicon
Iron
Copper
Zinc
Titanium
Manganese
Chromium
Others

Amount (wt%)
Balance
0.8-1.2
0.4 0.8
Max. 0.7
0.15-0.40
Max. 0.25
Max. 0.15
Max. 0.15
0.04-0.35
0.05

III. TAGUCHI EXPERIMENT: DESIGN AND

ANALYSIS
Essentially, traditional experimental design
procedures are too complicated and not easy to use. A
large number of experimental works have to be carried
out when the number of process parameters increases. To
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3.

4.

Control
factors
Pulse current
(Amps)
Gap voltage
(Volts)
Pulse on time
Ton
(Seconds)
Pulse off time
Toff
(Seconds)

Level - I

Level - II

Level III

10

14

40

50

60

IV. Experimental Set Up

The experiments
were
conducted
on
METATECH EDM machine which is shown in Fig 2.
Here electrical energy is used to generate electrical spark
and material removal occurs mainly due to thermal
energy of the spark. EDM is mainly used to machine
materials with high toughness, high strength and
temperature resistant alloys. EDM can be used to
machine complex geometries in small batches or even on
job-shop basis. Work material to be machined by EDM
must be electrically conductive. In this work tool is taken
as cathode (-) and work piece is taken as anode (+) and

International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology - IJORAT

Vol. 2, Issue 2, FEBRUARY 2016

the metal is removed from the work piece due to erosion

caused by rapidly recurring spark discharge taking place
between the tool and work piece. Tool material should be
such that it would not undergo much tool wear when it is
impinged by positive ions. In this experiment, copper
electrode is used as tool material. The functions of
dielectric fluid in EDM are to help in initiating discharge
by serving as a conducting medium when ionized, and
conveys the spark. In this experiment, Kerosene was
employed as a dielectric fluid. In this investigation gap
voltage, pulse current, pulse ON time and pulse OFF
time are considered as machining parameters. Discharge
current (I) is the value of the current applied to the
electrode during pulse on-time. Discharge current is one
of the primary input parameters considered together with
discharge duration, constant voltage for given tool and
work piece materials. Pulse ON time is the time for
which current is applied to the electrode during each
EDM cycle. The material removed is directly
proportional to the quality of energy applied during pulse
ON time. This energy is controlled by the current and
pulse ON time. Pulse OFF time is the waiting interval
during two pulse on-time periods.

shown in Table 3. The Minitab 15 statistical software has

been used for analysis.
In order to determine the level of influence of the control
factors the analysis of variance (ANOVA) was
performed for the MRR and Ra data as shown in Table 4
and 5 respectively.
Table 3. Experimental results.
S.No

MRR
(g/min)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

1
1
1
2
2
2
3
3
3

1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3

1
2
3
2
3
1
3
1
2

1
2
3
3
1
2
2
3
1

0.0258
0.0356
0.125
0.0275
0.365
0.014
0.189
0.25
0.29

S/N ratio
for
MRR
-31.767
-28.971
-18.0618
-31.2133
-8.75414
-37.0774
-14.4708
-12.0412
-10.752

Ra
(m)
1.32
1.54
1.10
1.23
1.08
2.01
1.87
1.57
1.33

S/N ratio
for
Ra
-2.41148
-3.75041
-0.82785
-1.7981
-0.66848
-6.06392
-5.43683
-3.91799
-2.47703

Table 4 Analysis of MRR data

value for MRR

ANOVA for MRR

Mean by factor level(dB)

Control
factor

DF

SS

%
Contribution

Level-1

Level-2

Level-3

367.88

39.71996

-26.27

-25.82

-12.42

128.90

14.0823

-25.82

-16.59

-21.96

282.91

30.66482

-26.96

-23.65

-13.76

147.21

15.5329

-17.09

-26.84

-20.44

ERROR

TOTAL

Overall mean(a)=-17.09
926.90

`100

Optimal combination: A3C3

DF- Degrees of Freedom; SS- Sum of squares.

Fig. 2 Experimental setup of EDM

The MRR have been calculated by analyzing the weight
difference of the work piece using a digital weighting
scale of 0.001 gram precision. The surface roughness
(Ra) has been measured by using Mitutoyo surface
roughness tester Ra on each faces of the specimen is
measured and its average value has been reported in
Table 3. The experimental result along with the S/N ratio
has been displayed in Table 3.

Table 4 reveals the fact that the voltage and the

pulse ON time were the predominant factors in
determining the metal removal rate. The energy content
of the spark is proportional to the pulse on time. Hence it
exhibits the increasing trend with the MRR as depicted in
Fig 3.

V. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

From the experimental data, S/N ratio () for
MRR and Ra has been calculated by considering MRR as
Larger is better type problem and the Ra as smaller is
better type problem. The calculated S/N ratio has been

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International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology - IJORAT

Vol. 2, Issue 2, FEBRUARY 2016

Fig. 3 Main Effects Plot for SN ratios

From the Table 5, it is evident that the pulse off
time is the only factor that influences the Ra. The pulse
off time exhibits the decreasing trend with surface finish
as shown in fig 4. This is due to the higher energy pulses
which erodes and evaporates higher amount of material
that produces larger crater on the work piece.

Taguchis optimization method, the following can be

concluded from the present study:
1.

2.
Table 5 Analysis of surface roughness
ANOVA for Ra
value for Ra
D
SS
%
Mean by factor level(dB)
F
Contributi
Level-1
Level-2
Level-3
on
A
2
4.0799
14.099
-2.330
-2.843
-3.944
B
2
0.3174
1.0968
-3.215
-2.779
-3.123
C
2
5.5651
19.2321
-4.131
-2.675
-2.311
D
2
18.9741
65.5715
-1.852
-5.084
-2.181
ERROR
0
Overall mean(a)= -3.039
TOTAL
8
28.9365
Optimal combination:D2C1
DF- Degrees of Freedom; SS- Sum of squares; Ra- Surface roughness.
Control
factor

3.

Statistically designed experiments based on Taguchi

methods were performed using L9 orthogonal arrays
to analyze the metal removal rate as response
variable. Conceptual S/N ratio and ANOVA
approaches for data analysis drew similar
conclusions.
In this study, the analysis of the confirmation
experiment for metal removal rate and surface
roughness has shown that Taguchi parameter design
can successfully verify the optimum cutting
parameters (A3C3) for MRR and (C1D2) for surface
roughness, which are voltage=60 V (A3), pulse ON
time= 8sec(C3).
Metal removal rate increases with voltage, pulse on
time and Surface roughness minimize with pulse off
time in electric discharge machining of 6061
Aluminum alloy/5%SiC composites.

VII.REFERENCES

Fig. 4 Main effects plot for Surface roughness

The optimal machining conditions for MRR and
Ra had been A3C3 and D2 respectively as displayed in
Table 4 and 5. The level of C (pulse on time) for optimal
MRR and Ra has been totally contradictory. Hence
achieving higher metal removal rate together with better
surface finish has never achieved. Therefore an
appropriate technique needs to be explored in future.
VI. CONCLUSION
This study has discussed an application of the Taguchi
method for investigating the effects of process
parameters on the metal removal rate value in the electro
Discharge machining of 6061AA/5%SiC composites. In
the EDM process, the parameters were selected taking
into consideration of manufacturer and industrial
requirements. From the analysis of the results in the
EDM process using the conceptual signal-to-noise (S/N)
ratio approach, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and
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