Wire electro-discharge machining of titanium alloy

This paper presents an experimental investigation of wire electro-discharge machining (WEDM) of titanium alloy. The objective is to investigate the effect of seven process parameters including pulse width, servo reference voltage, pulse current, and wire tension on process performance parameters (such as cutting speed, wire rupture and surface integrity). A Taguchi L18 design of experiment (DOE) has been applied. All experiments have been conducted using Charmilles WEDM. It was also found that the cutting speed increases with peak current and pulse interval. Surface roughness was found to increase with pulse width and decrease with pulse interval. The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) also indicated that voltage, injection pressure, wire feed rate and wire tension have non-significant effect on the cutting speed. Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM) examination of machined surfaces was performed to understand the effect of different wires on work piece material surface characteristics. A brief review of WEDM of titanium alloy is also included in the paper. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.