Robust setting of Ti-6Al-4V machining using WEDM (High energy with EF Circuit Off)

Abstract

In this project, some research had been done on optimization of wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) parameters. It has been known that WEDM is a specialized thermal machining process which accurately machines parts of hard material with complex shapes like advanced materials. Ti-6Al-4V is one of advanced materials with excellent technical properties which have difficulties to machine using conventional machining. Nowadays, titanium alloys widely used in industry such as automotive and tool making industries despite the fact that it is lack of information regarding machining process using WEDM. This paper focuses on optimization wire EDM parameters to obtain robust setting of Ti-6Al-4V machining within range of peak current (IP) 2006V~2012V with three significant factors; pulse OF-time (ON), pulse Off-time (OFF) and wire speed (WS). Design of Experiment (DOE) which is Classical approach was used in this project starting from planning experiment until analysis of the results. Experiments were conducted to test the model and satisfactory results are obtained. The final step in this experiment is to run confirmation test in order to verify the predicted value with actual value. Results from the confirmation test showed that percentage error more than 10% and this experiments result are not validated. The source to the error was identified with flushing pressure system to figure out the main reason error occurred. Information from this experiments are still useful for further studies although this results are not validated.