Performance Improvement of Wire-Cut Electrical Discharge Machining Process Using Cryogenically Treated Super-Conductive State of Monel-K500 Alloy

In this research, the cryogenically treated superconductive Monel-K500 alloy has been machined by Wire-cut Electrical Discharge Machining (WEDM) process to improve the machining characteristics. Initially, the Monel-K500 Alloy has been cryogenically treated using - 165 degrees C temperature of liquid nitrogen to convert the superconductive state alloy with minimum electric resistivity. The WEDM experiments have been performed using process parameters: Spark Current (SC), Pulse Width (PW), Pulse Interval (PI), Flushing Flow rate (FF), Wire Tension (WT), and Wire Feed rate (WF), and machining characteristics: Surface roughness (Ra), Material Removal Rate (MRR), and Wire Wear Ratio (WWR) by Taguchi L27 orthogonal array. The CRITIC (CRiteria Importance Through Inter-criteria Correlation) weight integrated VIKOR (VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje) multi-objective optimization technique has been applied to predict the combination of process parameter settings to achieve the best machining characteristics. The predicted optimum combinations of process parameter settings have been applied to compare the WEDM performances using superconductive and normal conductive states of work materials. It was revealed from comparative studies that MRR and WWR of SCS are 14.29% and 5.48% higher and the surface roughness of SCS is 26.92% lower than NCS of Monel K500 alloy, respectively.