Analysis of Response Variables in WEDM of Inconel 718 Using Taguchi Technique

AbstractWire Electrical Discharge Machining (WEDM) is used extensively in the machining of conductive materials where it is essential to generate intricate and complex shapes with higher dimensional accuracy and surface finish. The applications are in the field of aerospace, automobile, mould making and medical industries. Over the years, WEDM has remained as a competitive and economical machining option fulfilling the machining requirements imposed by the short product development cycles and the growing cost pressures. Taking into consideration the development of mechanical industry, demands for alloy materials having high hardness, toughness and impact resistance are increasing. Machine tool industry has also made exponential growth in its manufacturing capabilities in last two decade but still machine tools are not utilized at their full potential. This limitation is a result of the failure to run the machine tools at their optimum operating conditions. The problem of arriving at the exact analysis of the operating parameters has attracted the attention of the researchers and practicing engineers for a very long time. In the present work, an attempt has been made to analyse the machining conditions for Material Removal Rate (MRR), Surface Roughness (SR), cutting width (kerf) and dimensional deviation during WEDM of Inconel 718 using DoE such as Taguchi methodology, L8 Orthogonal Array. The experimental analysis is carried out using Minitab 16 software and it was observed that pulse-on-time is the most influential factor for all the response variables such as MRR, SR, Kerf and dimensional deviation at 95% confidence level, with contributions of 54.32%, 58.42%, 83.21% and 36.11% respectively. Along with this, peak current was observed to be next significant parameter for kerf and dimensional deviation whereas for MRR and SR servo voltage was observed to be the next significant parameter