Effect of spark gap voltage and wire electrode feed rate on machined surface morphology during Wire EDM process

Abstract

Nature of machined surface morphology during wire electro discharge machining (Wire EDM) process depends on input process parameters like pulse on duration (Ton), pulse off duration (Toff), spark gap voltage (SV) and wire electrode feed rate (WF). After initial experimentation, duty factor (Ton/Ton+Toff = 120/150) was decided to be 0.8 based on suitable material removal rate. Afterwards effect of spark gap voltage and wire electrode feed rate on machined surface morphology was investigated. It was found that at lower spark gap voltage re-solidification and accumulation of debris on machined surface is more which reduces with increasing spark gap voltage. Debris size increases with increasing spark gap voltage and higher wire electrode feed rate leads to sparse accumulation of debris on machined surface. � 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.