Effect of Different Wire Electrodes on the Performance of WEDM

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of different wire electrodes used in wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) on the machining characteristics of AISI D3 die steel has been presented. Three process parameters, namely type of wire (brass wire, zinc coated wire and composite wire), pulse on time and peak current have been considered. The process performance is measured in terms of cutting speed and surface roughness. The research outcome will identify the important parameters and their effect on performance characteristics while machining AISI D3 material with different wire electrodes. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) of multilevel factorial design indicated that all the selected parameters have significant effect on the performance characteristics. The study indicated the improvement in surface roughness with brass wire over other wires. Maximum cutting speed was obtained with composite wire as compared to zinc coated and brass wire. Additionally, scanning electron microscope (SEM) examination highlighted important features of machined work piece surface.

Process Optimization of EDM Cutting Process on Tool Steel using Zinc Coated Electrode

“…It is due to the formation of surface profile, decreased dielectric flushing ability and zinc coated also acts as coolant to minimize surface modification. The ineffective flushing result in poor surface finishes [3].…”

“…However, in recent years, the development of alloys and coating technologies have led to more robust and improved materials, such as, zinc coated brass wire [2]. The coated wire also helps to protect the brass from thermal shock and broken [3]. In addition, the coated wire able to increase machine productivity by 70% over uncoated brass wire [4].…”

“…The electrode wire performances are normally measured on two machining responses, material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (Ra) and the corresponding input parameters studies by most were current, pulse on time, pulse off time, wire feed and wire tension [3,5,6]. Observations made by several works showed that Ra of H13 tool steel increases when the electrode wire tension, pulse off time and servo voltage increased, and decreases with the increases of electrode wire feed, pulse on time and peak current [7,8].…”

Performance of Zinc Coated Electrode Wire and Parametric Optimization During Profile Cutting of Die-Steel

“…Kapoor et al [10] studied the influence of different wire electrodes used in WEDM on the machining characteristics of AISI D3 die steel, considering brass wire, zinc material coated wire and composite wire along with Ton and peak current, over the outputs SR and cutting speed. The study found that, reduction in SR was possible with brass wire and improved cutting speed was possible with composite wire when compared with other wire electrodes.…”

Enhancing Wire-EDM Performance with Zinc-Coated Brass Wire Electrode and Ultrasonic Vibration

“…The study found that WEDM produced surface damage but the bulk FGCC microstructure is not affected by machining and the internal structure of the damaged layer had less WC grains as compared to top machined surface [10]. Many researchers compared the performance of wire-cut EDM with and without the zinc-coated brass wire electrode [11][12][13][14][15]. The results showed that using a zinc-coated brass wire electrode significantly improved the surface roughness and reduced the kerf width and geometrical accuracy compared to the conventional wire-cut EDM.…”