Assessment of the impacts of bio-dielectrics on the textural features and recast-layers of EDM-surfaces
Shirsendu Das, Swarup Paul, Biswanath Doloi
Abstract
The alternative dielectrics like vegetable oils, emulsions, and different organic solutions have captured the emerging research attentions, and few pieces of literature also discussed about their potentiality to replace conventional kerosene. However, observations of the existing literatures are limited up to the assessment of the primary responses like material removal rate (MRR), surface roughness (SR), hardness, etc., which are not sufficient to recommend them as a suitable one. Therefore, the present work intends to incorporate a little bit value-addition to the existing research by including their impacts on the crater-overlapping, debris-agglomeration, surface integrity, and recast-layer thickness of the EDM-surface. Here, the machining is performed on the titanium alloy ‘Ti6Al4V’ using a cylindrical copper tool with various flushing pressures, and the obtained outcomes are compared with that of conventional kerosene. Findings claim the presence of spikes, black spots, and discrete thermal defects with comparatively thinner recast thickness when bio-dielectric was used. Moreover, comparatively 20.75% higher MRR, 16.68% less SR, and 18.75% more tool wear rate (TWR) are noticed for bio-dielectric within the permissible range of the flushing pressure, but beyond this range, 4–6.5% reduction in MRR and 26.00–31.5% increment in TWR are observed.