Electrical Discharge Machining using Powder-Mixed Dielectric

Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is one of the most widely disseminated manufacturing technologies, in particular as regards the generation of accurate and complex geometrical shapes on hard metallic components. Nevertheless, current EDM has major limitations when dealing with fine surface finish and material removal rate. Recently EDM with powder mixed dielectric (PMEDM) has been a focus of intense research work in order to overcome these technological performance barriers. The present study is done with an objective to modify the machining characteristics like surface roughness, material removal rate, and hardness by adding different concentrations of TiO2 into the dielectric fluid of EDM. XRD and MAPING analysis has been carried out to find the migration of powder from the dielectric to the machined surface. SEM of the surface and the cross-section is also done to analyze the surface texture and recast layer. The results achieved show that minor amount of powder was migrated to machined surface, which resulted in surface improvement. The dielectric with added powder also shows significant improvement in material removal rate.