Investigation of the Optimal Machining Parameters on Wire Electrical Discharge Machine by Taguchi Technique

Abstract

This paper focused on the effect of process parameters on material removal rate (MRR), feed rate (FR) and surface roughness (SR) of machining titanium by wire electrical discharge machine (WEDM). The Taguchi method had been used based on L9 orthogonal array to find out the optimal process parameters. This work also investigated the influences of machining parameters including peak current, wire-speed, wire tension and voltage. The experiment was analyzed by Minitab 16 which observed that the peak current was the most influential factor for MRR, FR and SR. However, the wire speed was significant to the feed rate. The optimum parameters of obtained MRR, FR and SR were 20.57 mm3/min, 22.43 mm/min and 1.74 mm, respectively. Thereafter, the scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to identify the microstructure of the workpiece. It could be seen that craters had more by the high discharge of thermal energy that caused the formation of larger cracks and craters, leading to an increase in surface roughness.KeywordsMaterial removal rate (MRR), Feed rate (FR), Surface roughness (SR), Taguchi method, Wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM