Surface Modification of Aluminum by Electrical Discharge Coating with Tungsten and Copper Mixed Powder Green Compact Electrodes

EDM is a prominent non-traditional machining process, which is widely used for machining hard materials which is not possible byconventional processes. A very special aspect of this process is a surface modificationby material transfer from the tool electrode to the work-piece which is commonly known as electro discharge coating (EDC). In this work, electrode prepared with tungsten (W) and copper (Cu) powder by powder metallurgy (PM) route used as tool material and pure aluminum is used as work-piece. Using reverse polarity (tool as anode and work-piece as cathode) in electro discharge machine a hard composite layer of WC-Cu has been deposited on the Aluminum workpiece surface. The effect of compaction pressure during tool preparation by PM method and peak current (Ip) and pulse on time (Ton) during EDC process on Deposition Rate (DR) and Tool Wear Rate (TWR) have been studied. A Taguchi L18 experimental design method has been used to study the effect of various process parameters on EDC process.