Abstract

In this study, effect of machining process parameters viz. pulse-on time, pulse-off time, current and servo-voltage for machining High Carbon High Chromium Steel (HCHCr) using copper electrode in wire EDM was investigated. High Carbon High Chromium Steel is a difficult to machine alloy, which has many applications in low temperature manufacturing, and copper is chosen as electrode as it has good electrical conductivity and most frequently used electrode all over the world. Tool making culture of copper has made many shops in Europe and Japan to used copper electrode. Experiments were conducted according to Taguchi’s technique by varying the machining process parameters at three levels. Taguchi’s method based on L9 orthogonal array was followed and number of experiments was limited to 9. Experimental cost and time consumption was reduced by following this statistical technique. Targeted output parameters are Material Removal Rate (MRR), Vickers Hardness (HV) and Surface Roughness (SR). Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Regression Analysis was performed using Minitab 17 software to optimize the parameters and draw relationship between input and output process parameters. Regression models were developed relating input and output parameters. It was observed that most influential factor for MRR, Hardness and SR are Ton, Toff and SV.

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