OPTIMIZATION OF MACHINING PARAMETERS FOR

ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE MACHINING OF

AUSTEMPERED DUCTILE IRON
A PROJECT REPORT
Submitted by
K.JAYAN PRATHAP
R.KOWSIK

312311114048
312311114058

In partial fulfilment for the award of the degree of

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
in
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

St. JOSEPHS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

ANNA UNIVERSITY: CHENNAI 600025

APRIL 2015

ANNA UNIVERSITY: CHENNAI 600025

BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

Certified that this project report OPTIMIZATION OF MACHINING

PARAMETERS FOR ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE

MACHINING OF

AUSTEMPERED DUCTILE IRON is the bonafide work of K.JAYAN

PRATHAP (312311114048) and R.KOWSIK (312311114058) who carried out
the work under my supervision.

SIGNATURE

SIGNATURE

Dr.S.Arivazhagan, M.E., Ph.D.

Vice Principle and Head of the Department

Mr. K.M.Kumar, M.E., (Ph.D)

Associate Proffesor

Department of Mechanical Engineering,

Department
of
Mechanical
Engineering,
St. Josephs college of Engineering,
Jeppiaar nagar
Chennai-600119.

St. Josephs college of Engineering,

Jeppiaar nagar,
Chennai-600119.

CERTIFICATE OF EVALUATION

COLLEGE NAME
BRANCH
SEMESTER

: St. JOSEPHS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

: MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
: VIII

SL.NO

Name of the students

who have done the
Project

Title of the Project

Name of the
supervisor with
designation

1)

K.JAYAN PRATHAP
(312311114048)

OPTIMIZATION
OF
MACHINING
PARAMETERS
FOR
ELECTRICAL
DISCHARGE
MACHINING
OF
AUSTEMPERED
DUCTILE IRON

Mr. K.M.KUMAR,
M.E.,(Ph.D)
ASSOCIATE
PROFESSOR,
DEPARTMENT OF
MECHANICAL
ENGINEERING

2)

R.KOWSIK
(312311114058)

This report of the project work is submitted by the above students in partial
fulfilment for the award of BACHELOR OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
in Anna University and was evaluated and confirmed to be report of the work done
by the above students.
Submitted for UNIVERSITY VIVA EXAMINATIONS
Held on:

INTERNAL EXAMINER

EXTERNAL EXAMINER

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We express our sincere thanks to our Col. Dr. Jeppiaar M.A., B.L., Ph.D., our
Managing Director Dr. B. Babu Manoharan M.A., MBA., Ph.D., and our
Director Mr. B. Jaikumar Christurajan B.E., M.B.A, of St. Josephs college
of Engineering for the help and facilities extended during the course of our
undergraduate studies and materialization of this project work.
We are deeply indebted to our Principal Dr.Vaddi Seshagiri Rao M.E., Ph.D.,
F.I.E., being a source of inspiration throughout our study in this college.

We thank our Head of the department Dr.S.Arivazhagan M.E., Ph.D., and our
staffs for their guidance and encouragement at each and every stage of our
project work and also guiding us properly through the reviews.

With profound respect, we express our deep sense of gratitude and sincere
thanks to our internal guide, Mr.K.M.Kumar M.E.,(Ph.D.) for his valuable
guidance and suggestion throughout this project.

We express our thanks to all staff members for their kind assistance and
guidance in making the project a grand success.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTE
R

TOPIC

PAGE
NO

NO

LIST OF FIGURES

vii

LIST OF TABLES

viii

ABSTRACT

ix

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM)

1.1.1 Spark Erosion Machining Process

1.1.2 Metal Removal Mechanism

1.1.3 Dielectric Fluids

1.1.4 Flushing

1.1.5 Electrode Material

1.2 Spheroidal Graphite Iron

10

1.2.2 Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI)

1.3 Heat Treatment Process

11
12

1.3.1 Heat Treatment of ADI

13

LITERATURE REVIEW

17

MATERIAL SELECTION

21

3.1 Workpiece Material

21

3.2 Tool Material

21

3.2.1 Copper

22

3.2.2 Brass

22

3.2.3 EN 24

23

HEAT TREATMENT

25

4.1 Austempering Procedure

25

4.2 Material Hardness

27

RESPONSE SURFACE DESIGNS

28

5.1 Response Surface Design

28

5.2 Parameter selection for EDM

29

5.2.1 Parameters Level

29

5.3. Power Supply Unit

5.3.1. Electrical Data
5.3.2. Working Parameters
5.4 Procedure of the Experiment

30
30
30
31

5.5 Material Removal Rate (MRR) and Electrode Wear

Rate(EWR)

31

OPTIMIZATION OF MACHINING PARAMETERS

32

6.1 ANOVA Table for MRR

34

6.1.1 Diagnostic Graph for MRR

34

6.1.2 Normal plot of residuals

35

6.1.3 Residuals vs Predicted

35

6.1.4 Residuals vs Run

36

6.1.5 Predicted vs Actual

36

6.2 ANOVA table for EWR

37

6.2.1 Diagnostic Graph for MRR

37

6.2.2 Normal plot of residuals

38

6.2.3 Residuals vs predicted

38

6.2.4 Residuals vs Run

39

6.2.5 Predicted vs Actual

39

6.3 Plot for Optimization

40

6.3.1 Plot between Desirability vs Current, Pulse on

time
6.3.2 Plot between MRR vs Pulse on time , Current

40

6.3.6 Plot between EWR vs Pulse on time , current

41

RESULT AND CONCLUSION

40
42

LIST OF FIGURES
CHAPTE
R
1

TOPIC

PAGE
NUMBER

1.1 EDM CLASSIFICATION

1.2 EDM MACHINING

1.3 AUSTEMPERING TEMPERATURE AND

TIME GRAPH

17

3.1 TOOL MATERIAL

26

4.1 AUSTEMPERING TEMPERATURE AND

TIME GRAPH

27

4.2 AUSTEMPERED DUCTILE IRON

28

5.1 EDM MACHINE

33

5.2 CONTROL PANEL OF EDM

33

6.1 NORMAL PROBABILITY PLOT

37

6.2 RESIDUALS Vs RUN

38

6.3 RESIDUALS Vs PREDICTED

38

6.4 PREDICTED Vs ACTUAL

39

6.5 NORMAL PROBABILITY PLOT

41

6.6 RESIDUALS Vs PREDICTED

42

6.7 RESIDUALS Vs RUN

42

6.8 PREDICTED Vs ACTUAL

43

6.9 DESIRABILITY Vs CURRENT, PULSE ON

TIME

44

6.10 MRR Vs CURRENT, PULSE ON TIME

45

6.11 EWR Vs CURRENT, PULSE ON TIME

46

LIST OF TABLES
7

CHAPTER

TOPIC

1.1 PROPERTIES OF SPHEROIDAL GRAPHITE

PAGE
NUMBER

12

IRON 500/7
3

3.1 COMPOSITION OF COPPER

23

3.2 COMPOSITION OF BRASS

24

3.3 COMPOSITION OF EN 24

25

4.1 AUSTEMPERING AND HARDNESS TABLE

26

5.1 PARAMETER LEVELS

31

5.2 MACHINE SPECIFICATION

32

5.3 OUTPUT VALUES OF EXPERIMENT

35

6.1 ANOVA TABLE FOR MRR

36

6.2 ANOVA TABLE FOR EWR

40

ABSTRACT
The optimization of process parameters is one of the most important aspects
to take into consideration in the majority of manufacturing processes and
particularly in processes related to Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) being
widely used in die and mould making industries, aerospace, aeronautics and
nuclear industries.
Austempered Ductile Iron gives an outstanding combination of mechanical
properties which include very high strength with good ductility, high fatigue
strength and good fracture toughness, better vibration damping and excellent wear
resistant. Through work hardening characteristics of the matrix these irons have an
exceptional blend of wear properties and toughness. These properties, together with
its lower density and lower production costs, have enabled ADI to replace forged
steel, heat- treated steel, fabrications and aluminium components, for many
applications. ADI components are used in a variety of industries worldwide, which
include heavy truck and bus, light car and truck, construction and building,
agriculture, mining, food and feed milling and railways.
Hence its wide use and high hardness requires unconventional machining
such as EDM, the optimization of process parameters for the machining of ADI
will provide a more economic and efficient method in doing it. Conventional
machining process on ADI results in tool wear and long machining time. The
process parameters that we are going to optimize are the input current, pulse on
time, flushing pressure and tool material used and analyze the output parameters
such as Material Removal Rate and Electrode Wear Rate with the help of Response
Surface methods of analysis to obtain the best operating parameter.