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ISSN 2395-1621 Study of Material Removal Rate and

Surface Roughness on D2 Steel in
Electro-discharge Machining
#1
Subhasish Prusty, #1 Akash Ray, #2 B.C. Routara
1
rocksonigi@gmail.com
1
tupakash@gmail.com
2
bcroutray@gmail.com

#1
Final Year Student, School of M echanical Engineering, KIIT University , Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
#2
Professor, School of M echanical Engineering, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

ABSTRACT ARTICLE INFO

In the present study, D2 steel is machined in die sink electro-discharge machine with
electrolytic copper and bronze tool to anal yze the machining characteristic. The process
parameters such as pulse on ti me (Ton), pulse off ti me (Tof f ) and peak current (Ip) are
taken as the input variables whereas metal removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness
(SR) are chosen response variables. The experi mentation was conducted using Taguchi’s
L9 orthog onal array with di fferent combi nation of process parameters. The signal to
noise (S/N) ratio of each experimental data has been found to correlate the input
vari ables with res ponse variables. Also Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) techni que is used
to check the significance of the model and confirmati on test is conducted to compare the
experi mental data with the predicted data to i dentify the effecti veness of the proposed
method. Furthermore, from the ANOVA result, it is found that peak current is the most
significant parameter among the other for material removal rate. The correlation
coefficient R-sq value found to be 0.9 which is very much close to 1 which shows the
adequacy of model is quite g ood enough. Si milarly, analysis for surface roughness has
been carried out and it is found that pulse on ti me is most significant parameter for
surface roughness. The main effect pl ots for both the res ponse variables have been
analyzed and it has been found the results are good agreement with ANOVA result.
Keywords — MRR, Surface Roughness, ANOVA

automotive and med ical applicat ions [4].The spark produced

I. INTRO DUCTION
Electro Discharge Machining (EDM) is an electro -
thermal non-tradit ional machining process, where electrical
energy is used to generate electrical spark and material
removal main ly occurs due to thermal energy of the spark.
The main requirement is that the work piece has to be
electrically conductive [1]. When a potential difference is
applied to the tool, an electric field causes a series of sparks
between the tool and the work p iece [2]. This spark to occur
between the tool and the work piece leads to a localized
heating with very high temperatures resulting in
vaporization and removal o f material fro m work surface and
formation o f a minute crater [3]. EDM is mainly used to
fin ish tools and dies which require high surface finish. It has
also been extensively used to finish parts used in aerospace,
between tool and work piece erodes the surface of the work
material thereby resulting in material removal [5]. Already
quite a number of researches have been carried out in the
field of EDM. Ultrasonic vibrat ion applied to the electrode
has improved the machining performance wh ile mach ining
difficult to machine materials thereby increasing the
application of EDM [6]. Researches relating to the
application of high and low frequency forced axial
vibrations on the electrode have been done [7]. Similarly,
researches relating to vibrat ing work piece were also carried
out [8]. In this research paper comparison of MRR and
surface roughness between bronze and copper electrode has
been carried by machin ing D2 steel.
Significant research has already been done on hard
mach ining in modern manufacturing technology in the last
decade [9]. The researches mainly carried out were in
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investigating the effect of various cutting parameters, tool Taguchi’s method. Each wo rk piece is machined up to depth
geometry, tool wear, surface finish, cutting forces, 2 mm. The machin ing time is recorded in the timer of EDM
temperature etc [10]. Past researches include evaluation of mach ine. The Material removal rate is measured by using
various hardened steels at different levels using various weight difference between the work piece and tool by using
cutting tool materials [11]. Also research including hard electronic M ETLERPM200 dig ital weight measurement
mach ining of carbon-carbon composites using EDM has mach ine. The surface roughness is measured by Taylor
been carried out since using conventional mach ining Hobson Surtronic 25 surface roughness tester.
methods to machine such composite is quite hard because of
the high strength of carbon reinforced fibre [12].
In this research paper the main aim is to co mpare the
material removal rate (M RR) and surface roughness (Ra) of
D2 steel when mach ined with different electrodes, i.e.
Electrolytic Copper and Bronze electrode using die sink
electro- discharge machine..

II. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS

A. Work-piece selected
D2 steel is a class of cold worked tool steel which has a high
hot hardness and very high corrosion resistance. It is main ly
used for tooling purposes such as forging, blanking or
punching tools, shear blades, thread rolling tools, tools for
deep drawing and cold ext rusion, pressing tools etc. In this
experiment D2 steel is used as the work-p iece material
which mechanical properties are mentioned in Table I.
TABLE I
MECHANICA L PROPERTIES OF D2 STEEL Fig. 1 Electro-discharge machine used for
Items Unit experi mentation
Hardness, Knoop (converted 769
fro m Rockwell C hardness)
Hardness, Rockwell C 62
Hardness, Vickers 748
Izod impact unnotched 77J
Poisson's ratio 0.27-0.3
Elastic modulus 190-210 GPa

B. Electrode selected

In the present work two d ifferent conductive materials such

as electrolytic copper and bronze is used as tool electrode.

C. Experimental setup and procedure

The experiments are conducted in the Advance
Manufacturing Process lab of School of Mechanical
Engineering, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar using the
electrical d ischarge machine (EDM ) as shown in Figure 1
with a model of Smart ZNC manufactured by Electronica,
India. The work p ieces are prepared 40 mm in diameter with
10 mm thickness and the tool electrodes with average
diameter 25.4 mm for each experiment. The dielectric
med iu m used is commercial EDM oil with side impu lse jet
flushing system adopted to flush away the eroded material
fro m both work p iece and tool near the sparking zone. The
experiments are conducted based on L9 orthogonal array of
Fig. 2 Experi mental set up of EDM
D. Response Variab les Evaluation
The machining performances are evaluated to study the
effect of M RR and SR on D2 steel with the following
numerical formu la.
Material removal rate (MRR):- Material removal rate is
defined as ratio of the differences in weight of the work
piece before and after machining to machin ing time.
Mathematically it is expressed as
W  Wa
MRR  b g/min (1)
t
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where Wb = Weight of work p iece before mach ining (g) TABLE IV

MATERIA L REM OVA L RATE AND SURFA CE

Wa = Weight of work piece after machin ing (g) ROUGHNESS FOR BRONZE TOOL
Sl. Ip Ton Toff MRR Ra
= Machin ing time in (min)
No (g/min) (avg )
1 4 300 4 0.0230769 4.146
Surface roughness (SR):-The Ra values are taken at three
2 4 500 6 0.0078947 4.360
different position of the work piece and the average of three
3 4 750 8 0.0102040 4.853
measurements is recorded.
4 6 300 4 0.0074074 6.880
E. Design of experiment 5 6 500 6 0.0266667 7.173
6 6 750 8 0.0160000 8.860
The experiments are conducted based on the effect of three 7 8 300 4 0.0250000 7.073
process parameters like peak current (Ip ) in A mpere (A), 8 8 500 6 0.0173913 7.573
Pulse on time (Ton ) in microsecond (µs), Pu lse off t ime (T off) 9 8 750 8 0.0657059 8.926
in microsecond (µs), proposed by Taguchi method which
consist of 9 experimental runs. The process variables with III ANALYS IS OF VARIANCE
their actual values on different levels are shown in the Tab le
II. ANOVA is a statistically based method to verify any
TABLE II differences in the average performance when group of
combination of parameters are tested. The results are
PROCESS PARAM ETERS AND THEIR LEVELS analyzed with Analysis of variance (ANOVA ) and the F-
Symbols Levels ratio test to check the adequacy of the model .The results of
1 2 3 the ANOVA for M RR and Ra are shown in Tables 2, and 4
Ip 2 4 6 respectively. Fro m the ANOVA table it is again analysed
Ton 150 200 250 that significance level of α = 0.05, i.e. fo r the confidence
Toff 0.3 0.5 0.7 level of 95%. It has been acceptable that P value less than
0.05 indicates that the performance of the parameter
statistically significant and more than 0.05 less significant to
III. RESULT S AND DISCUSSION the model. Also it is found that the R2 value for the MRR
and Ra using copper tool are 0.9930 and 0.9861 respectively
The experimental values have been found during the
mach ining of D2 steel with copper and bronze tool as shown that significant the R2 value is close to 1 which is desirable.
in the following Table III and Table IV. The predicted R2 is in reasonable agreement with the
adjusted R2 .
TABLE III TABLE V

MATERIAL REM OVAL RATE AND SURFACE ANALYSIS OF VA RIA NCE FOR MATERIA L
ROUGHNESS FOR COPPER TOOL REM OVA L RATE FOR COPPER TOOL
MRR Ra Source DF Adj SS Adj MS F P
Sl. No Ip Ton Toff (g/min) (avg ) Ip 2 0.003864 0.0019318 137.56 0.007
1 4 300 4 0.009589 4.08 Ton 2 3.46E-05 0.0000173 1.23 0.448
2 4 500 6 0.009183 3.64 Toff 2 8.98E-05 0.0000449 3.2 0.238
3 4 750 8 0.010563 2.62 Error 2 2.81E-05 0.000014
4 6 300 6 0.020000 5.39 Total 8
5 6 500 8 0.019354 5.31
R-sq value=99.30% and R-sq(Adj) =97.2%
6 6 750 4 0.005882 2.55
Since P value fo r Ip is less than 0.05 and its rank is
7 8 300 8 0.058750 7.50 determined to be 1, it is taken to be statistically significant.
8 8 500 4 0.052173 5.87
9 8 750 6 0.057500 3.23
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TABLE VI The combination of the levels corresponding to the largest
MEAN RESPONSE TABLE FOR MATERIA L values of SN ratios form the optimu m parameter
REM OVA L RATE FOR COPPER TOOL combination for better response. From the main effects plot
Level Ip Ton Toff for SN Rat ios of MRR using copper tool we see that 3rd
level of Ip , 1st level of Ton and 3rd level of Toff is the optimu m
1 0.009779 0.029446 0.022548 combination of parameters for maximu m MRR.
2 0.015079 0.026904 0.028895
3 0.056141 0.024649 0.029556
Delta 0.046363 0.004798 0.007008
Rank 1 3 2

TABLE VII
ANALYSIS OF VA RIA NCE FOR SURFACE
ROUGHNESS FOR COPPER TOOL
Source DF Adj SS Adj MS F P
Ip 2 6.542 3.271 21.27 0.045
Ton 2 13.2538 6.6269 43.08 0.023
Toff 2 2.0768 1.0384 6.75 0.129
Error 2 0.3076 0.1538
Fig 4 S/N ratio graph for surface roughness on copper
Total 8 tool

R-sq value=98.61% and R-sq(Adj) =94.45% Fro m the main effects plot for SN Ratios of Surface
Since P value fo r Ip is less than 0.05 and its rank is Roughness using copper tool we see that 1st level of Ip , 3rd
determined to be 1, it is taken to be statistically significant. level of Ton and 1st level of Toff is the optimu m co mbination
of parameters for min imu m Ra.
TABLE VIII The R2 value obtained using bronze tool for MRR and Ra are
MEAN RESPONSE TABLE FOR SURFACE 0.9595 and 0.9921 respectively thus showing that the R2
ROUGHNESS ON COPPER TOOL value is very much close to 1 which is desirable.
Level Ip Ton Toff
TABLE IX
1 3.447 5.657 4.167
2 4.417 4.94 4.087 ANALYSIS OF VA RIA NCE FOR MATERIA L
3 5.533 2.8 5.143 REM OVA L RATE ON BRONZE TOOL
Delta 2.087 2.857 1.057 Source DF Adj SS Adj MS F P
Rank 2 1 3 Ip 2 0.0042592 0.00213 23.27 0.041
Ton 2 0.0000601 3.01E-05 0.33 0.753
Toff 2 0.0000197 9.8E-06 0.11 0.903
Error 2 0.000183 9.15E-05
Total 8

R-sq value=95.95% and R-sq(Adj) =83.81%

Since P value of Ip is less than 0.05, it is taken to be
statistically significant.

Fig 3 S/N ratio graph for material removal rate on

copper tool
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Fro m the main effects plot for SN Ratios of Surface
TABLE X Roughness using copper tool we see that 3rd level of Ip , 2nd
level of Ton and 3rd level of Toff is the optimu m co mbination
ANALYSIS OF VA RIA NCE FOR SURFACE of parameters for min imu m Ra.
ROUGHNESS FOR BRONZE TOOL The results of ANOVA for MRR, Ra, are shown in table 7
Source DF Adj SS Adj MS F P to11 respectively. If the P-value in the ANOVA table less
than 0.05 then the selected parameters and their relations
Ip 2 21.7793 10.8897 105.42 0.009 (Linear, Square, and Interaction) with the response are
Ton 2 3.7899 1.895 18.35 0.052 significant at 95% confidences level. The R2 and Adj R2 are
Toff 2 0.3888 0.1944 1.88 0.347 indicating the measure result goodness of fit for the model.
If it close to unity the experimental result is better and fit for
Error 2 0.2066 0.1033 the model. The value R2 and Adj R2 for M RR are 99.3%,
Total 8 97.2% (copper tool) and 95.95%, 83.81% (b ronze tool).
Similarly the values of R2 and Adj R2 for Ra are 98.61%,
R-sq value=99.21% and R-sq(Adj) =96.85% 94.45% (copper tool) and 99.21%, 96.85% (bron ze tool).
Since P value of Ip is less than 0.05, it is taken to be
statistically significant. IV CONCLUS ION

The present paper describes the optimal mach ining

condition during electro-discharge machining of D2 steel.
The process parameters are arranged by Taguchi’s method
(L9 Orthogonal array) to know the effect of M RR and
surface roughness. The process parameters are chosen as
peak current, pulse on time and pulse off time. The
mach ining characteristics are evaluated on EDM using two
electrodes such as electrolytic copper and bronze.
Based on the experimental and analytical result fo llo wing
conclusion are drawn:
 The experimental data put into the MINITA B software
version 16 for analysing the response variables with
process parameters.
 The results of ANOVA are used to observe the most
Fig 5 S/N ratio graph for surface roug hness for bronze significant machin ing process parameter fo r mach ining
tool characteristics like M RR and Surface roughness.
 The response table for material removal rate and
Fro m the main effects plot for SN Ratios of MRR using surface roughness for both the tool are presented. In all
copper tool we see that 1st level o f Ip , 2nd level o f Ton and 3rd the cases the peak current is the most significant
level of Toff is the optimu m co mbination of parameters for parameter except fo r surface roughness in machining on
maximu m M RR. copper tool.
 The correlation coefficient R-sq value fo r all the cases
are more than 90% which is very close to 1 as it is
desirable.
 The optimu m set of co mbination of process parameters
are found out from main effect plot of S/ N rat io.
 For material removal rate on copper tool, 3rd level o f Ip ,
1st level of Ton and 3rd level o f Toff are the optimal
combination of process parameter. Furthermo re, for
surface roughness 1st level of peak current, 3rd level of
pulse on time and 1st level of pulse off time is the
optimal co mbination of process parameters.
 Similarly, the material removal rate on bronze tool, 3rd
level of peak current, 2nd level of pulse on time and 3rd
level of pulse off time is the optimal co mbination one
where as fo r surface roughness 1st level of peak current,
Fig 6 S/N ratio graph for material removal rate for
second level of pulse on time and 3rd level of pulse off
bronze tool
time is the optimal co mb ination of p rocess parameter
during machining of D2 steel on EDM.
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