Manufacturing and Optimization of EDM Electrodes by DMLS method

Electro Discharge Machining (EDM) is a nontraditional machining process which is used to machine hard tools and difficult shapes which rarely possible by conventional processes. It is the process of material removal from the workpiece by a series of sparks generated in the dielectric fluid medium. Electro Discharge Machining is a widely used processes in manufacturing. Rapid prototyping is a method of creating a three dimensional object layer by layer with a CAD model. Additive manufacturing is employed in printing the 3D part. In this work, Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) procedure is followed to print the EDM electrode as a non conventional product and its performance is compared with the conventional electrode. Aluminum AlSi10mg sintered material powder used to fabricate the electrode. The material of the work piece is also the aluminum. Based on Material Removal Rate(MRR) and Tool Wear Rate(TWR) electrode performance is evaluated. By different variations of Current (I), Pulse Off-time (Toff), Pulse On-time (Ton), the experiment is conducted on EDM with both kinds of electrodes. The Taguchi technique of optimization is followed for different levels and arrays. Orthogonal arrays don’t consists of repeated values and rows and are very simple. The DOE is based on the Taguchi orthogonal arrays. The number of iterations and trials depend upon the category of orthogonal array selected. The level of quality of the component is described by Taguchi method. Comparison between these different parameters are made.