Experimental Analysis on Wire Electrical Discharge Machining of Nickel Alloy Using Taguchi based Grey Relational Analysis

Nickel is one of the difficult to machine materials and exclusively employed in high temperature environments. This alloy possesses better strength and lesser thermal coefficient which makes the poor machining performance in conventional methods of machining. For overcoming such kind of demerits, nontraditional machining methods have been identified. Wire Electrical Discharge Machining (WEDM) is one among the advanced methods that is developed from the concept of Electrical Discharge Machining process that is predominantly engaged for machining of harder materials and also for producing intricate shapes. This present exploration deals about an experimental study on WEDM of nickel alloy and also mainly concentrating on the optimization of process variables using Taguchi based grey approach. The experimental trials are devised by Taguchi’s experimental design approach and process variables are analyzed by Taguchi’s single response analysis. Pulse on time, pulse off time and peak current are considered as input variables and material removal rate and surface roughness are considered as output variables. Multi aspects optimization has been performed by Grey relational approach. The significance of individual process variables is determined by ANOVA analysis. The importance of independent variables on desired performance measures are also revealed by contour plot analysis.