Experimental investigation and optimization of MRR and SR for AISI 446 Stainless steel in EDM Machining

Abstract EDM is one where electrical sparks are generated by creating voltage difference between the electrode and work piece. The eroding of material takes place. To machine the materials which are difficult to machine in traditional machining and for temperature resistant high strength alloys EDM is applicable. The practical applications include dies in watches, mould cavity with deeper and narrow slots, mould cavity for the injection molding. The theme of this project is to optimize the machining parameters in die sinking electrical discharge machining in order to able the best parameter to get the high MRR and low SR. In present the work pieces is AISI 446 stainless steel material is used to conduct the experiments by varying the control factors Process responses such as material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (SR) are determined for every experimental run. With a minimum amount of experimentation Taguchi's L9 orthogonal array (OA) is used to study the response of control factors with varying levels in commercial tool MINITAB 17. To get the optimized results individually for process responses, Taguchi single objective optimization is used. And finally, a mathematical and statistical technique called Response surface methodology (RSM) has been used for the analysis and modeling of the MRR and SR by using the commercial tool Design expert 9.0.3.1. Key words: EDM, AISI, SS446, L9 OA, Taguchi, RSM, MRR and SR