Ishfaq Kashif, Asad Muhammad, Anwar Saqib, Pruncu Catalin I, Saleh Mustafa, Ahmad Shafiq
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore 548900, Pakistan.
Industrial Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia.
Materials (Basel). 2020 Dec 23;14(1):23. doi: 10.3390/ma14010023.
Titanium alloys, especially Ti-6Al-4V, which is considered a difficult-to-cut material, bears numerous applications in aerospace and biomedical sectors. The criticality of the accurate formation of the machined cavity for the said applications and properties of Ti-6Al-4V accentuated the use of electric discharge machining (EDM). However, the issues of lower material removal rate (MRR) and tool wear (TWR) discouraged the use of EDM. These inherent issues hold a pivotal role regarding the sustainable machining of Ti-alloy. Therefore, in this research the potentiality of kerosene-based dielectric, having graphene nanoparticles, is comprehensively examined for the sustainable EDM of Ti-6Al-4V, which was not focused upon yet. Experimentation was performed under Taguchi's design (L18) with three types of electrodes, namely Aluminum, Brass and Copper. In total, 36 experiments were conducted, of which 18 were with graphene-mixed dielectric and the remaining were with kerosene. Experimental results reveal that the brass electrode with negative tool polarity yields higher MRR for both types of dielectrics. The maximum MRR (7.602 mm/min) achieved with graphene mixed dielectric is 64.5% greater as compared to that obtained with kerosene (4.621 mm/min). Moreover, the minimum TWR obtained for graphene-based dielectric, i.e., 0.17 mg/min is approximately 1.5 times less than that achieved with kerosene.
钛合金，尤其是Ti-6Al-4V，被认为是一种难切削材料，在航空航天和生物医学领域有众多应用。对于上述应用以及Ti-6Al-4V的性能而言，加工型腔精确成型的关键性突出了电火花加工（EDM）的应用。然而，较低的材料去除率（MRR）和工具磨损率（TWR）问题阻碍了EDM的使用。这些固有问题在钛合金的可持续加工方面起着关键作用。因此，在本研究中，对含有石墨烯纳米颗粒的煤油基电介质用于Ti-6Al-4V可持续电火花加工的潜力进行了全面研究，而这一点尚未受到关注。实验是在田口设计（L18）下进行的，使用了三种类型的电极，即铝、黄铜和铜。总共进行了36次实验，其中18次使用石墨烯混合电介质，其余使用煤油。实验结果表明，对于两种类型的电介质，负工具极性的黄铜电极产生的MRR更高。与使用煤油（4.621 mm/min）相比，使用石墨烯混合电介质获得的最大MRR（7.602 mm/min）高出64.5%。此外，基于石墨烯的电介质获得的最小TWR，即0.17 mg/min，比使用煤油时实现的最小TWR大约少1.5倍。
