An Empirical Investigation on Optimization of EDM Process Parameters for Ti-6Al-4V Alloy Using Mathematical Modeling and Taguchi Approach

This paper addresses modeling and optimization of process parameters for electrical discharge machining (EDM) being especially developed for difficult-to-machine materials such as Ti-6Al-4Vtitanium alloys. The important process variables considered in this study include current, voltage,pulse-on time, pulse-off time, and time on work. The main machining output characteristics in EDMare material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (SR). The relationships between these processinputs/outputs have been established using design of experiment (DOE) approach and mathematicalmodeling. The mathematical models were developed based on the data collected as per Taguchi's DOE matrix. Then, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) technique has been employed to verify adequacies of the proposed models. In the next step, optimization of EDM process parameters havebeen carried out using signal to noise (S/N) analysis. In this way, the process variables can be set at proper levels to obtain desired machining outputs. Computational results demonstrate that the proposed approach is quite efficient in modeling and optimizing such machining