Investigating the performance evaluation of Cu-Cr tool fabricated by powder metallurgy during electrical discharge machining of EN9 steel
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the machining characteristics of electrical discharge machining (EDM) when a tool is fabricated using powder metallurgy. Because pure Cu tools obtained using conventional machining pose problems of high tool wear rate, tool oxidation causes loss of characteristics in tool shape.
Design/methodology/approach
The research investigation carried out experiments planned through Taguchi’s robust design of experiments and used analysis of variance (ANOVA) to carry out statistical analysis.
Findings
It has been found that copper and chromium electrodes give less metal removal rate as compared to the pure Cu tool. Analytical outcomes of ANOVA demonstrated that MRR is notably affected by the variable’s polarity, peak current, pulse on time and electrode type in the machining of EN9 steel with EDM, whereas the variables pulse on time, gap voltage and electrode type have a significant influence on EWR. Furthermore, the process also showed that the use of powder metallurgy tool effectively reduces the value of SR of the machined surface as well as the tool wear rate. The investigation exhibited the possibility of the use of powder metallurgy electrodes to upgrade the machining efficiency of EDM process.
Research limitations/implications
There is no major limitation or implication of this study. However, the composition of the powders used in powder metallurgy for the fabrication of tools needs to be precisely controlled with careful control of process variables during subsequent fabrication of electrodes.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the effectiveness of copper and chromium electrodes/tools fabricated by means of powder metallurgy in EDM of EN9 steel. The effectiveness of the tool is assessed in terms of productivity, as well as accuracy measures of MRR and surface roughness of the components in EDM machining.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: No fund was received from any source for this work.
Disclosure statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Since acceptance of this article, the following author has updated their affiliation: Mohinder Pal Garg is at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Punjab Engineering College (Deemed to be university) Chandigarh, India.
Citation
Shard, A., Garg, M.P. and Gupta, V. (2023), "Investigating the performance evaluation of Cu-Cr tool fabricated by powder metallurgy during electrical discharge machining of EN9 steel", World Journal of Engineering, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/WJE-03-2023-0073
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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