Experimental Study of Nonpolar Surfactant Mixed with Dielectric Fluid on Die-Sinking EDM of Ti-6Al-4V Alloy

This article deals with the study of the effect of nonpolar surfactant on the performance characteristics of Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) of the Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The selected process parameters, like pulse on-time, pulse off-time, discharge current, and nonpolar surfactant concentration, and their effect on machining performance characteristics, like Thermal Conductivity (TC), Material Removal Rate (MRR), Surface Roughness (SR), Tool Wear Rate (TWR), and Recast Layer Thickness (RLT), were studied. In this article, the one-factor-at-a-time approach and Taguchi technique were used to determine the machining process parameters. Nonpolar surfactant is mixed into dielectric fluid, which increases the TC and suspends the debris particles in EDM oil to reduce the discontinued discharge conditions during machining. It was observed from the results that RLT, SR, and TWR are reduced, while MRR and TC are increased, compared to machining without nonpolar surfactant. Furthermore, the experimental results indicated that the surfactant was decomposed in EDM oil and that a small recast layer, which could be seen on migrated elements in EDX analysis peaks, formed on the machined surface.