Experimental Analysis of Dry WEDM using Design of Experiments

Dry electric discharge machining (EDM) is an environment-friendly modi�cation of the oil EDM process in which liquid dielectric is replaced by a gaseous medium. In the current work, parametric analysis of the process has been performed with tubular copper tool electrode and Tungsten Carbide work-piece. Experiments have been conducted using air as the dielectric medium to study the effect of gap voltage, peak current, pulse on time, pulse off time and wire feed on material removal rate (MRR) and surface finish (Ra). First of all input parameters which contribute in obtaining desired material removal rate (MRR) and surface finish (Ra) are finalized by referring previous literature. Then baseline data is collected for current process parameters, which gives response in terms of material removal rate and surface finish. Further experimental analysis is carried out for optimizing the input parameters like gap voltage, peak current, pulse on time, pulse off time and wire feed for getting desired output, which is material removal rate (MRR) and surface finish (Ra). Experimental analysis is accomplished by using Design of Experiments (Taguchi design). For the design, performance and analysis of DOE statistical software (MINITAB 17) is utilized.