Kerf width analysis of wire electrical discharge machining of titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4 V ELI) using response surface method

Wire Electrical Discharge Machine (WEDM) is a non-conventional machining process for machining electrically conductive materials regardless of their hardness. Machining of titanium alloy has higher machining forces, tool wear, worse surface finish, and low material removal rate by conventional machining. The effects of WEDM process parameters such as gap voltage (GV), pulse on time (Ton), pulse off time (Toff), and wire feed rate (WF) on kerf width (KW) are investigated in this work. Experimental work was carried out using response surface methodology through the Box Behnken method. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to investigate the effect of each process parameter on kerf width. A desirability approach was employed to find better machining conditions for KW. Based on ANOVA results, GV, Ton, and Toff have a significant effect, whereas WF has less effect on KW. The minimum kerf width was achieved 0.356 mm at GV (40 V), Ton (3 Its), Toff (10 Its) and WF (1 m/min). The confirmations test result shows that predicted values were well fitted with the 95% confident level of experimental values. (c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Second International Conference on Engineering Materials, Metallurgy and Manufacturing.