Review of improvements in wire electrode properties for longer working time and utilization in wire EDM machining

Wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) is an important technology, which demands high-speed cutting and high-precision machining to realize productivity and improved accuracy for manufacturing hard materials. WEDM has experienced explosive growth and complexity of equipment as well as rising demand for the basic process tool (the wire electrode). Greater taper angles, thicker workpieces, automatic wire threading, and long periods of unattended operation make the selection of the idealwire a much more critical basis for achieving successful operation. This paper focuses on the evolution of EDM wire electrode technologies from using copper to the widely employed brass wire electrodes and from brass wire electrodes to the latest coated wire electrodes. Wire electrodes have been developed to help user demand and needs through maximum productivity and quantity by choosing the best wire. In the final part of the paper, the possible trends for future WEDM electrode research are discussed.

 Download

If you need more information about my research work, visit my website.

www.kfs.edu.eg/ibrahemmaher.html

Surface Roughness Prediction in End-Milling Process

Surface roughness prediction for the end-milling process, which is one of the major cutting processes, is a very important economical consideration in order to increase machine operation and decrease production cost in an automated manufacturing environment. In this study; prediction of surface roughness (Ra) for Brass (60/40) material based on cutting parameters: cutting speed, feed rate, and depth of cut; was studied. 

Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) was used to predict the surface roughness in the end milling process. Surface roughness was used as dependant variable while cutting speed of range (750 - 1750rpm), feed rate of range (50 - 250mm/min) and depth of cut of range (0.3 - 0.7mm) were used as predictor variables. Normal and feed forces were used as predictor variables to verify the ANFIS model. Different membership functions were adopted during the training process of ANFIS.The effects of cutting parameters on the normal force, feed force and surface roughness were discussed. Experimental test data were used to examine the ANFIS model by defining the reliability and percentage error of the model. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. While the predicted surface roughness was compared with measured data; the mean square error has been found equal to 8.5 % hence the achieved accuracy is equal to 91.5 %. Although this work focuses on prediction of surface roughness for endmilling operation, the concepts introduced are general; ie., prediction of surface roughness using ANFIS can be applied to many other cutting and machining processes.

 Download

If you need more information about my research work, visit my website.

www.kfs.edu.eg/ibrahemmaher.html