Investigations into Electric Discharge Machining

In this competitive scenario, the demand for alloy materials having high hardness, high impact strength and toughness are increasing. As these materials are difficult to be machined by conventional methods, so non-conventional methods like Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) are generally employed. In this work, parametric investigations of the electric discharge machining process for EN-19 alloy considering multiple performance characteristics using response surface methodology is reported. Performance characteristics namely the cutting rate and surface roughness are chosen to evaluate the machining effects. The process parameters selected in this study are pulse on-time, pulse off-time, current and voltage. Experiments have been planned according to the central composite design of response surface methodology. The experimental results show that the cutting rate increases with increase in current and pulse on-time whereas surface roughness decreases as the current and pulse on-time increases and the cutting rate decreases with increase in pulse off-time whereas surface roughness increases with increase in pulse on-time.