FABRICATION OF ECDM

ELECTRO CHEMICAL DISCHARGE MACHINING SET-UP AND

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON PARAMATERIC
OPTIMIZATION FOR ECDM ON GLASS USING
TAGUCHI METHODOLOGY

MOHIT SHARMA1, NEERAJ GOYAL2, PROF. M. M. GOUD3

1,2
ME Student, 3Prof and HOD, Production & Industrial Engineering, PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh

Abstract- Electrochemical discharge machining (ECDM) is a Non-conventional technology which is mostly applied for the
effective and economical machining of several non-conductive materials. Experimental set up of ECDM has been fabricated
using the XYZ motion of Vertical Milling Machine and Experiments have been carried out according to designed
experimental plan to identify the optimal parametric conditions of ECDM process using Taguchi method[6] of
optimization. In this study, the signal-to-noise S/N ratio and the ANOVA [7] analyses are implemented to find the relative
contributions of the main machiningparameters, such as applied voltage, electrolyteconcentration and interelectrode gap in
controlling the machining performance as material removal rateMRR. The most common Non-conducting and chemically
immune material glass is used as workpiece material and aqueous NaOH solution as electrolyte with three different
concentrations 15 %, 25 % and 20 %. The applied voltage of pulsed D.C. power supply with three ranges of 50 V, 60 V and
70 V is considered for the experiments with the three different settings for interelectrodegapas 20mm, 40mm and 60 mm.

Keywords- ECDM, ANOVA, MRR, S/N Ratio

I. INTRODUCTION are needed to improve thequality characteristics of

The electrochemical discharge machining (ECDM)
have manyapplicationsfor machining non-conducting
engineering materials such as glass and ceramics. For
electrically conductive materials, electrochemical
machining (ECM) and electrical discharge machining
(EDM) are two very powerful tools available.
However several electrically non-conductive
materials are also of great interest for many
applications. Glass and composite materials are two
examples. The technical requirements for using glass
in microsystems are growing. Medical devices
requiring biocompatible materials are only one of
many examples. The importance of glass is also
growing in the field of Micro Electro Mechanical
Systems (MEMS) [1]. MEMS emerged in with the
development of processes for the fabrication of micro
structures.
ECDMprocess. Thus parametric study has been
carried out based onTaguchi method to optimize the
machining characteristic MRR (material removal
rate) for ECDM process by controlling three
important machiningparameters, such as applied
voltage, electrolyteconcentration and interelectrode
gap.
WHAT IS ECDM?
ECDM Electro chemical discharge machining makes
use of electrochemical and physical phenomena to
machine glass. The principle is explained in the
figure 1 below

Glass has some very interesting properties such as its

chemical resistance or biocompatibility. As glass is
transparent so it is widely used in optical applications
or in applications where optical visualization of a
process is needed. Some promising applications for
glass in the MEMS field are micro accelerometers,
micro reactors, micro pumps, and medical devices
such as flow sensors or drug delivery devices.All Figure 1
these applications give birth to the need of effective
and economical machining of glass. The work piece is dipped in an appropriate
electrolytic solution usually sodium hydroxide or
To meet this need and industrialrequirement of potassium hydroxide. A constant DC voltage is
machining of brittle non-conducting materials, studies applied between the machining tool or tool-electrode

International Conference on Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, 26th May-2013, New Delhi, ISBN: 978-93-82208-95-2
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Fabrication of ECDM Electro Chemical Discharge Machining Set-up and Experimental Investigation on Paramateric Optimization for ECDM on Glass using Taguchi Methodology

and the counter-electrode. The tool-electrode is

dipped a few mm in the electrolytic solution and the
counter-electrode is in general a large flat plate. The
tool- electrode surface is always significantly smaller
than the counter-electrode surface.

The tool-electrode is generally polarized as a cathode,

but the opposite polarization is also possible. When
the cell terminal voltage is lower than a critical value
called critical voltage, typically between 20 and 30 V,
traditional electrolysis occurs. [1]

Hydrogen gas bubbles are formed at the tool-

electrode and oxygen bubbles at the counter-electrode
depending on their polarization and the electrolyte
used. When the terminal voltage is increased, the
current density also increases and more and more
bubbles are formed. A bubble layer develops around
the electrodes.
The density of the bubbles and their mean radius
increase with increasing current density. When the
terminal voltage is increased above the critical
voltage the bubbles coalesce into a gas film around
the tool-electrode and produces the discharges
between the tool and the surrounding electrolyte.
Machining is possible if the tool-electrode is in the
near vicinity of the glass sample. During machining
the local temperature can increase to such an extent,
resulting in heat affected zones or even cracking. The
different cathode and anode reaction takes place as
soon as an appropriate potential is reached between
the inter electrode gap of the machining zone[1]
Reactions at the cathode (or tool)
(i) Plating of metal ions
M+ + e- → M
Where M represents any anode material
(ii) Evolution of hydrogen gas.
2H2O + 2e- → 2(OH)- + H2 ↑
Figure 2
An AC to DC convertor with specific Voltage output
range and voltage and current display is utilized as
power supply with a dimmer to efficiently control the
voltage. Electrolyte used is NaOH and is contained in
a thick glass container. A spring managed tool of
HSS of 0.9 mm diameter is used as tool electrode and
is insulated in between by a fabric holder to avoid the
rest of machine from circuit current. Thetable
movements of a vertical milling machining is used to
provide essential feeds. Work piece is glass with
length 76 mm width 26 mm and thickness 1.35 mm
.The fixture for holding the glass work piece is made
of acrylic. Thus a working set up of ECDM is
fabricated.
III. SELECTION OF PROCESS PARAMETERS
Initially the experiments are carried out in different
combinations of parameters. With the help of these
experiments it is found that an applicable range of
voltage 40 – 60 V, concentration 15 – 25 % and inter
electrode gap of 20 – 60 mm is feasible for the
experimental investigations. In designing the
experiments these ranges are applied as in the table1
below.
Table 1: Machining parameters

Reaction at anode (auxiliary electrode)

(i) Dissolution of metal ions in the electrolytic

solution
M → M+ + e-

(ii) Evolution of oxygen gas at the auxiliary electrode

4(OH)- → 2H2O + O2 + 4e- IV. MEASUREMENT OF PERFORMANCE

II. FABRICATION OF SETUP Experiments are conducted according to the design of

experiment and responses are measured for each
The ECDM setup essentially requires a pulsed DC experiment. The amount of material removed is
power supply, appropriate tool and auxiliary measured by taking the difference in weight of the
electrode, electrolyte and its container, work piece work piece before and after the machining W1and
fixture and XYZ movement setting. As shown in W2respectively. TheMRR [8] can be calculated by
Figure 2 below dividing the difference in weight by machining time
as (W1-W2)/ t . t denotes the machining time.
International Conference on Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, 26th May-2013, New Delhi, ISBN: 978-93-82208-95-2
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Fabrication of ECDM Electro Chemical Discharge Machining Set-up and Experimental Investigation on Paramateric Optimization for ECDM on Glass using Taguchi Methodology

V. TAGUCHI METHODOLOGY-BASED DOE R is the value of MRR of ith replication test for jth
experimental condition.
The analysis of experimental results is done by
Taguchi method [7] based parametric optimization VIII. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
technique to quantitatively determine the effects of
various machining parameters on the MRR quality The Experiments are carried out as accordance to the
characteristics of ECDM process and to find the designed DOE and all the nine combination of the
optimum parametric condition for obtaining optimum conditions are repeated three times each. The result
machining. In this analysis the design of experiment obtained and the calculated S/N ratio is indicated in
is done based on the selection of an appropriate the table2 below
standard orthogonal array. The analyses of signal-to-
noise S/N ratio and PooledANOVA [6] is carried out Table 2: DOE and results for MRR and S/N ratio
to study the relative importance of the machining
parameters on MRR of ECDM process for machining
non-conducting material glass and their respective
contribution for machining is obtained. Based on this
analysis the optimal setting for the machining
parameters for MRR is obtained.

VI. SELECTION OF ORTHOGONAL ARRAY

Before selecting an orthogonal array for the

experiment the total degrees-of-freedom [6] DOF for
the experiments is to be calculated. The applied
voltage, electrolyte concentration and inter electrode
gap are the three factors and each factor has three The effect of these parameters on MRR is also shown
levels. With three factors at three levels the total in graph form individually as in figure3 figure4 and
DOFs is 7. In the present study the interaction figure5
between the machining parameters is neglected. From
the value of DOF = 7 it is concluded that at least IX. ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE
seven experiments are to be conducted to estimate the
effects of each machining parameters. After The analysis of variance [6] is performed to
calculating the total DOF of experiment the next is to determine which machining parameter significantly
select an orthogonal array. The standard orthogonal affects the quality characteristics of ECDM process
array which has at least three number of columns at and also to find the relative contribution of machining
three levels is L9[6] is thus selected. This array has parameters in controlling the responses of the ECDM
total eight DOF and it can handle four three-level process. ThePooled ANOVA analysis in this study is
machining parameters. Each machining parameter done with the help of MINI TAB software and the
can be assigned to a column and nine machining results of variance and corresponding contribution of
parameter combinations are available in L9. Thus particular parameters are indicated in the table 3.
only nine experiments are required to be conducted to
study the effects of machining parameters on the Table 3: Results of Pooled ANOVA for MRR
performance of ECDM process. Degr
Machini Sum Mea
ees
Sym ng of n F P
of
VII. ANALYSIS OF S/N RATIO bols Paramet Squ Squ
Free
ers ares ares
In Taguchi method S/N ratio [7] is used to measure dom
the quality characteristics deviation from the desired 57.
Applied 80.0 40.0 154.
value. The term signal represents the desirable mean A 2 74
voltage 49 245 980
value of the output response and the term noise %
represent the undesirable value the standard deviation Electrol
for the output response. In present study to optimize yte 37.
51.3 25.6 99.5
the machining performance the larger the better B Concent 2 07
96 97 05
quality characteristics for MRR is considered. ration %

The S/N ratio for MRR, for jth experiment is defined Inter
1.4
as Electro 2.01 1.00 3.89
C 2 6
S/N ratio = -10* log10( ∑ 1/R2) de 6 50 15
%
Where m is the number of replications Gap

International Conference on Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, 26th May-2013, New Delhi, ISBN: 978-93-82208-95-2
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Fabrication of ECDM Electro Chemical Discharge Machining Set-up and Experimental Investigation on Paramateric Optimization for ECDM on Glass using Taguchi Methodology

3.7 X. CONCLUSIONS
Erro 5.16 0.25
20 3
r 5 82
% For the parametric optimization of the ECDM process
Tota 138. 10 for slot machining on glass Taguchi method is
26 implemented. From the experimental results S/N ratio
l 620 0
and ANOVA analysis following conclusions are
From the calculated value of F corresponding to the drawn:
selected parameters it is concluded that at 95 per cent
confidence level all the machining parameters (A) The applied voltage, electrolyte concentrationand
considered have significant effect on MRR as the interelectrode gap are the three parameters which
calculated value of F is greater than the value of significantly affect the MRRof ECDM process.
F0.05(2.20) that is 3.4928 Theinterelectrode gap has very little effect on
response of ECDM process.

(B) Applied voltage has a contribution of 57.74 %,

Electrolyte concentration of 37.07 % and inter
electrode gap of 1.46 % for affecting the MRR of
machining.

(C) For achieving maximum MRR the optimal level

of parametric conditions are A3B3C3.The applied
voltage of 60V, electrolyte concentration of 25 per
cent aqueous NaOH and interelectrode gap of 60 mm.

REFERENCES

[1]. Rolf Wiithrich : “Micromachining using electrochemical

discharge phenomenon “
Figure 3: Applied Voltage Graph for MRR
[2]. Bhattacharyya, B.N. Doloi, S.K. Sorkhel : “Experimental
investigations into electrochemical discharge machining
(ECDM) of non-conductive materials”

[3]. Alakesh Manna ,Vivek Narang : “A study on micro

machining of e-glass–fibre–epoxy composite by ECSM
process”

[4]. Chenjun Wei & Kaizhou Xu & Jun Ni : “A finite element

based model for electrochemical discharge machining “.

[5]. R. Wuthrich, V. Fascio : “Machining of non-conducting

materials using electrochemical discharge phenomenon—an
overview”

[6]. Montgomery D. “Design and analysis of experiments

(2001)”, John Willey and Sons, New York

Figure 4: Electrolyte Concentration Graph for MRR [7]. Ross P.J. "Taguchi Techniques for quality engineering
(1996)", McGraw Hill, New York

[8]. Amitabha Ghosh :”Electrochemical discharge machining:

Principle and Possibilities“

”””

Figure 5: Inter Electrode Gap Graph for MRR

International Conference on Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, 26th May-2013, New Delhi, ISBN: 978-93-82208-95-2
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