Parametric Study of Dry WEDM Using Taguchi Method

Wire Electrical Discharge Machining (WEDM) is a non-traditional thermo-electric process capable of machining hard materials of highly complex three dimensional shapes. In this paper, the dry WEDM experimentation is conducted using oxygen as a dielectric medium. The deionized water is replaced by the oxygen as a dielectric medium to ameliorate the environmental impact in the machining surrounding and to mitigate the health hazard to the operators. The experimental studies have been conducted by varying the pulse width (Tw), pulse interval (Ti), open circuit voltage (V), and discharge current (I). The values of machining parameters have been obtained by using the Taguchi design of experimental method. The implication of input parameters of the material removal rate (MRR) and Surface Roughness (Ra) has been investigated by using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The optimum output machining parameter values are predicted using Taguchi analysis and verified by the conformation experiments. Keywords— Dry WEDM, Oxygen Dielectric Medium, MRR, Ra, Taguchi method.