INVESTIGATION OF EDM PARAMETERS BY USING GRA & TAGUCHI METHODS ON COMMERCIAL ALUMINIUM (1050A)

Abstract

Optimization is one of the techniques used in manufacturing sectors to arrive the best manufacturing conditions,
which is an essential need for industries towards manufacturing of quality products at lower cost. This Project aims
to investigate the optimal set of process parameters such as current, pulse ON time and pulse OFF time, spark gap
voltage in Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) process to identify the variations in five performance
characteristics such as rate of material removal rate, electrode wear rate on tool, taper angle, machining time and
overcut value on the work material for machining Aluminium 1050A using copper electrode. Based on the
experiments conducted on L25 orthogonal array by Taguchi method, analysis has been carried out using Gray
Relational Analysis. Response tables and graphs were used to find the optimal levels of parameters in EDM process.
The confirmation experiments were carried out to validate the optimal results. Thus the machining parameters for
EDM were optimized for achieving the combined objectives of higher rate of material removal, lower wear rate on
tool on the work material considered in this work. The obtained results show that the Gray relational Analysis is
being effective technique to optimize the machining parameters for EDM process.