Experimental investigation on material removal rate in wire electrical discharge turning process for Al/SiC_p metal matrix composite

摘要

An attempt is made for the first time to machine metal matrix composite (MMC) consisting of aluminium alloy 360 (A360) reinforced with silicon carbide (SiC) particulate with 15% volume fraction using wire electrical discharge turning (WEDT) process. WEDT is carried out by incorporating a rotary spindle attachment in the existing wire electrical discharge machine (WEDM). The experiments are carried out by Response Surface Methodology (RSM) using Box-Behnken method. The input machining parameters varied at three levels are pulse-on time (T_(ON)), gap voltage (V) and spindle speed (SS). The significant WEDT machining parameters and their levels are obtained for higher material removal rate (MRR) by using ANOVA and response surfaces. From this study, it is observed that high T_(ON), medium V and low SS are resulted in higher MRR. Regression equation is established for the MRR for predication. The results obtained from this study will be useful to engineers in selecting the appropriate input WEDT parameters and their levels for cylindrical turning of MMC involving Al/SiC_p.