Experimental investigation of WEDM process parameters on properties of bronze particles using the Taguchi method

Abstract

Electrical discharge erosion in liquid media is a simple, effective technique to generate multi-scale metallic particles. An experimental investigation was conducted to determine the main machining parameters which contribute to particle size (PS) and size distribution (SD) in WEDM of bronze. Five factors, including three-level built-in processing patterns, wire speed and dielectric medium, are selected as control parameters using an orthogonal array L16(45) Taguchi method, PS and SD of produced powders are the measure of quality. The goal is to obtain micron-scale spherical metal powder with uniform particle size. Results show that cutting-section pattern is the most significant factor, and the electrolyte is the least. The PS and SD performance of the optimized powders is significantly improved by using Taguchi method. Spherical bronze powder with particle size of d10 11.05 μm, d50 31.13 μm and d90 67.48 μm are prepared using the optimized WEDM process parameter, which is A3–B4–C3–D1–E1 including dielectric medium water, cutting class 4, cutting division 3, cutting Sect. 1 and wire speed 200 μm/s. The research confirms that WEDM can be used to produce micron-scale metallic powders, providing cheap and high-quality metallic powders for the metal additive manufacturing industry.