Influence of Machining Parameters on Electric Discharge Machining of WPS Tool Steels ? An Experimental Investigation

Electric Discharge Machining is capable of machining geometrically complex or hard material components, super alloys, ceramics, carbides, heat resistant steels etc. being widely used in die and mold making industries, aerospace, aeronautics and nuclear industries. The objective of this paper is to study the influence of operating parameters like discharge current, gap voltage, pulse-on time and pulse-off time for responses such as Material Removal Rate (MRR) and Surface Roughness (Ra) on the EDM of WPS DIN 1.2379/AISI D2 tool steel using the copper and graphite electrode material. The effectiveness of EDM process with WPS DIN 1.2379/AISI D2 is evaluated in terms of the Material removal rate and Surface roughness produced. Design of experiment is conducted with L9 orthogonal array and Multi- objective optimization is carried out with the help of Response surface methodology to optimize both the responses at the same time and it was found that the discharge current is the most influential parameter affecting the Material Removal Rate and Surface roughness.