Experimental Investigation on Silicon Powder Mixed-EDM of Nimonic-90 Superalloy

Powder mixed electrical discharge machining (PM-EDM) is a technological advancement in electrical discharge machining (EDM) processes where fine powder is added to dielectric to improve the machining rate and surface quality. In this paper, machining of Nimonic-90 was carried out using fabricated PM-EDM, setup by adding silicon powder to kerosene oil. The influence of four input process parameters viz. powder concentration (P-C), discharge current (I-P), spark on duration (S-ON), and spark off duration (S-OFF) has been investigated on surface roughness and recast layer thickness. L9 Taguchi orthogonal and grey relational analysis have been employed for experimental design and multi-response optimization, respectively. With the addition of silicon powder to kerosene oil, a significant decrease in surface roughness and recast layer thickness was noticed, as compared to pure kerosene. Spark on duration was the most significant parameter for both surface roughness and the recast layer thickness. The minimum surface roughness (3.107 mu m) and the thinnest recast layer (14.926 mu m) were obtained at optimum process parameters i.e., P-C = 12 g/L, I-P = 3 A, S-ON = 35 mu s, and S-OFF = 49 mu s using grey relational analysis.

Automated summary

The use of powder mixed electrical discharge machining (PM-EDM) with added silicon powder to kerosene oil resulted in a significant decrease in surface roughness and recast layer thickness compared to pure kerosene. Spark on duration was identified as the most significant parameter for both surface roughness and recast layer thickness. The optimized process parameters led to the minimum surface roughness and the thinnest recast layer thickness.