effect of electrode materials on electric discharge machining of 316 l and 17 - 4 ph stainless steels电极材料对电火花加工的影响的316 l和17 - 4 ph不锈钢.pdfVIP

Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, 2012, 11, 685-690 Published Online July 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jmmce) Effect of Electrode Materials on Electric Discharge Machining of 316 L and 17-4 PH Stainless Steels * Subramanian Gopalakannan , Thiagarajan Senthilvelan 1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Adhiparasakthi Engineering College, Melmaruvathur, India 2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pondicherry Engineering College, Pondicherry, India * Email: gopalakannans@ Received February 27, 2012; revised April 5, 2012; accepted May 2, 2012 ABSTRACT Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) is one of the most efficiently employed non-traditional machining processes for cutting hard-to-cut materials, to geometrically complex shapes that are difficult to machine by conventional machines. In the present work, an experimental investigation has been carried out to study the effect of pulsed current on material removal rate, electrode wear, surface roughness and diameteral overcut in corrosion resistant stainless steels viz., 316 L and 17-4 PH. The materials used for the work were machined with different electrode materials such as copper, cop- per-tungsten and graphite. It is observed that the output parameters such as material removal rate, electrode wear and surface roughness of EDM increase with increase in pulsed current. The results reveal that high material removal rate have been achieved with copper electrode whereas copper-tungsten yielded lower electrode wear, smooth surface finish and good dimensional accuracy. Keywords: Electric Discharge Machining; Material Removal Rate; Electrode Wear; Surf