A study on kerf and material removal rate in wire electricaldischarge machining of Ti-6Al-4V: multi-objectives optimization

This paper presents an investigation on the effect and optimization of machining parameters on the kerf (cutting width) and material removal rate (MRR) of titanium alloy (TI-6AL-4V) using wire electrical discharge machining WEDM with a brass wire diameter of 0.5mm. The experimental studies were conducted under varyingpulse-off time, peak current, wire feed and wire tension. The settings of machining parameters were determined by using Taguchi experimental design method. The multiple performance characteristics based on the statistical-based analysis of variance (ANOVA) and grey relational analysis (GRA) was attempted. Analysis of variance was used to study the significance of process parameters on grey relational grade (GRG) which showed the most significant factor. The GRG obtained from the GRA was used to optimize the WEDM process. The optimum process parameters are determined by the GRG as the overall performance index. To validate the findings, confirmation experiment had been carried out at the optimal set of parameters, and the predicted results were found to be in good agreements with experimental findings. Improved machining performance in the WEDM process has been achieved by using this approach.