International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics

Volume 118 No. 24 2018

ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version)
url: http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/
Special Issue
http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/

Effect of Various powders added in to

the dielectric fluids on MRR and SR
during PMEDM of RENE80
A.Sugunakar
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
JITS, Warangal
sugunakar.amireddy@gmail.com
R. Markandeya
Dept. of Metallurgical Engineering
JNTUH, Hyderabad
A.Kumar
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
NIT, Warangal
V. Vikram Reddy
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
JITS, Warangal

April 27, 2018

Abstract
This paper mainly focused to investigate the machin-
ing characteristics of RENE 80 Nickel Alloy during powder
mixed electrical discharge machining. The experiments were
conducted considering electrical parameters (peak current,
pulse on time and pulse off time) at optimal combination
to get maximum material removal rate by varying powders
like aluminium, graphite and combination of aluminium and
graphite powders of equal proportions. Two types of di-
electrics normal EDM Oil (SAE 450) and Drinking water

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were used to study the machining parameters Material re-

moval rate (MRR) and Surface finish (SR). The experimen-
tal results reveal that maximum material removal rate (71.9
mm3 /min) was noticed with combination of aluminium and
graphite powder (1:1) substances at 4.5 g/l added in to the
EDM oil and minimum surface roughness (2.25µm) was ob-
tained at the aluminium powder of 4.5 g/l mixed in to the
drinking water dielectric medium.
Key Words:Aluminium Powder; Graphite Powder; EDM
Oil; Drinking water; Material removal rate; Surface rough-
ness

1 INTRODUCTION
Electrical discharge machining (EDM) involves two electrodes sepa-
rated by a dielectric medium. When the field strength between the
two electrodes is high enough, the dielectric breaks down, current
flows across, and material is removed from both electrodes. The
current flow between electrodes produces debris which is flushed
out by the fluid. This can be done continually to erode a finely
controlled element that would be unattainable to machine with tra-
ditional machining methods. However certain defects like porosity,
residual stress and micro cracks in the recast layer due to enormous
temperature followed by sudden cooling are usually found on the
machined surface.
The wide applications and usage of this process made many
manufacturing research engineers to confer more attention into the
fundamentals of this process to enhance the process capabilities
and applications. Erden and Bilgin [1] have first studied the effect
of additive powders (copper, aluminium, iron, and carbon) mixed
in dielectric uid (kerosene) on EDM of brass-steel and copper-steel
pair. It was noticed that machining rate increases with increase in
concentration of powder. However, it was reported that machining
becomes unstable at excessive concentration of abrasive particles
due to occurrence of short circuits. Guo Z N et al[2] have reported
the similar results during electrical discharge machining of tung-
sten carbide with addition of ne aluminium powder into kerosene.
Zhao et al [3] reported on the powder mixed EDM during rough
machining. It was observed that increase in machining efficiency

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International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue

of PMEDM by selecting proper discharging parameters. Kansal et

al [4] have carried out investigation on PMEDM of MMCs adding
silicon carbide, aluminium, copper, and chromium powders into di-
electric and reported that increase in the MRR as well as a decrease
in tool wear. Kung et al.[5] have reported increase in machining ef-
ficiency when Al powder particles were mixed in dielectric during
electrical discharge machining of cobalt-bonded tungsten carbide.
Behzad Jabbaripour et al.[6] performed powder mixed electrical
discharge machining (PMEDM) of titanium alloy by means of dif-
ferent powders such as aluminium, chrome, silicon carbide, graphite
and iron to investigate the output characteristics of surface rough-
ness topography, material removal rate (MRR) and electrochemical
corrosion resistance of machined samples. Jaswani [7] noticed that
with water, the machining accuracy was poor but the surface finish
was better. Tariq Jilani et al [8] reported that evolution of exten-
sive gas is associated with longer pulse duration and if they are not
removed effectively, may results to no erosion or very little erosion.
Leao at al [9] reported that the performance of plain water in terms
of material removal rate and electrode wear is generally lower when
compared to that obtained with hydrocarbon oils in die sink EDM.
EDM is also being increasing used to machine wide variety of
exotic, high strength, high temperature and corrosion resistant and
difficult to machine alloys used in aerospace and automobile in-
dustries. One such material is nickel super alloy RENE80 which
is gaining importance because of its wide usage. RENE80 nickel
alloy possesses high hardness, high strength and creep properties
combined with corrosion resistance and oxidation at high tempera-
tures. Due to its low thermal conductivity, high hardness and high
resemblance to react with the cutting materials during machining
when high temperatures generated, it is not easy to machine RENE
80. Hence it may require non-traditional machining methods to cut
this super alloy. Among the non-traditional machining processes,
EDM is perhaps the most popular one and adopted by manufac-
turing industries. Still, the available research data in the form of
published work pertaining to EDM of RENE80 nickel super alloy is
very little. In this study, experiments are conducted to explore the
influence of various powders added in to different dielectric fluids
on MRR and SR during EDM of RENE80 nickel super alloy.

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2 EXPERIMENTATION
In the present work, experiments were carried out by varying the
powders namely aluminium, graphite and combination of aluminium
and graphite in to the dielectric mediums namely EDM Oil (SAE
450) and Drinking water. Optimal combination of EDM input pa-
rameters such as pulse on time, peak current, and pulse off time val-
ues obtained by conducting preliminary experimentation on work
material and were kept unchanged during experimentation. For
conducting experiments RENE80 nickel super alloy was chosen as
work material and is cut into size of 70×35×4 mm3 by wire cut
EDM process. The composition of RENE80 nickel alloy is pre-
sented in Table 1. Physical and Mechanical properties of RENE80
nickel alloy are presented in Table 2. Tool electrode material, elec-
trolyte copper of 14 mm diameter and 70 mm length was selected
for conducting experiments and its properties were shown in Table
3.
Table 1: Elemental composition of RENE 80 nickel super alloy
(wt %)

Table 2: Mechanical and physical properties of RENE 80 nickel

super alloy

Table 3: Physical properties of electrolyte copper

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The EDM oil grade SAE450 and Drinking water were used as
dielectric mediums for experimentation. Their properties are given
in Table 4 and Table 5. All the experiments were conducted on die
sinking FORMATICS 50 EDM which contains controller ELEC-
TRONICA PRS 20 and customized working medium circulating
system has been intended for conducting experiments. In custom-
made system, for better flow of powders which are mixed into the
medium, a micro pump is incorporated. A motorized stirrer sys-
tem is also installed to avoid settling of powder substances. The
customized experimental setup is given in Fig 1.

Table 4: Properties Spark ignition 450 EDM oil

Table 5: Properties of Drinking water

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Figure 1: Modified experimental set up

Each experiment was conducted thrice to reduce the experimen-

tal error and average value is considered for analysis. The time
for machining chosen for each experiment is 3minutes. Many tri-
als were conducted for machining of Nickel based alloy and in 3
minutes the results were obtained after machining and found to be
very small variation within the results. Hence 3 minutes machining
time is chosen. Various powders namely aluminium, graphite and
combination of aluminium and graphite are chosen based on the lit-
erature review and also from preliminary investigations, for mixing
into the dielectric medium for conducting experiments by varying
each powder concentration separately. The physical properties of
Al and graphite powders are shown in Table 6.

Table 6: Properties of Al and Graphite powders

The present work focused on to identify the consequences of the

above powders on EDM features MRR and SR with two different
dielectric mediums. The electrodes and work pieces were cleaned

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and polished before machining. The preferred investigational con-

ditions are presented in the Table 5.

Table 5: Machining conditions for experiments

For calculating MRR, 300 grams with a resolution of 0.1mg digital

weighing balance was used to weigh the work piece before and after
machining. Then MRR is calculated as follows.
∆W
M RR(mm3 /min) = (1)
ρw × t
Where ∆ W is the work piece weight difference between before
and after machining (g), is work material density (g/mm3 ) and t
is time of machining in minutes. To measure surface roughness
Talysurf was used on machined surface. Roughness measurements
were conducted three times and average values are considered for
calculation SR.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 6 presents average values of MRR and Table 7 presents aver-
age values of SR with varying powders namely aluminium, graphite
and combination of aluminium and graphite (1:1 concentration)
mixed in to the dielectric mediums EDM Oil and Drinking water.
The quantity of powders added in to the dielectric fluids was 4.5
g/l and kept constant through the work.

Table 6: MRR values of various powders mixed in to dielectric

mediums

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Table 7: SR values of various powders mixed in to dielectric

mediums

A. Effect of Powders added in to dielectric fluids on MRR:

The variation of MRR with various powders and dielectric fluids
is shown in Fig. 2. Comparison of MRR values with different pow-
ders and dielectric mediums is presented in Fig. 3. It was noticed
from the Fig. 2 that MRR is extremely more with EDM oil used
as dielectric medium as compared to Drinking water as dielectric
medium. From the Figure 2 it is clear that MRR is increasing with
the change of powders in the EDM Oil dielectric medium. It is
observed from that in EDM oil dielectric medium, MRR of 30.42
mm3 /min is achieved when 4.5 g/l of aluminium powder added in
to the dielectric medium where as 45.61 mm3 /min is noticed with
4.5 g/l of graphite powder added in to the dielectric medium and
more MRR (71.9 mm3 /min) is observed with 4.5 g/l of the combi-
nation of aluminium and graphite powders of equal concentration
added in to the dielectric medium.

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Figure 2: Variation of MRR with various powders and dielectric

fluids

Figure 3: Comparison of MRR with various powders and

dielectric fluids

Addition of abrasive powder particles incurs bridging effect that

creates interlocking amongst the particles. Thus, they behave like
a chain under the sparking area. Sparking intensity in remarkably
increased within a discharge leading to faster erosion from the work
material surface and consequently improved material removal rate.
Low density of graphite allows it to mix easily with the dielectric
which reduces the electric resistance of the machining gap enabling

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high current flow through the gap and high amount of material re-
moval from the work piece craters. The powder mixed dielectric
widens the gap eliminating the difficulties in dielectric circulation
and removal of debris in the machining medium, which in turn re-
sults in a higher number effective discharges leading to higher MRR.
Low density of graphite and aluminium at low concentration 4.5 g/l
allows it to homogenous mixing with the dielectric which reduces
the electric resistance enabling high energy flow through the ma-
chining gap and high material removal from the work piece. Spark-
ing intensity in remarkably increased within a discharge leading to
faster erosion from the work material surface and consequently im-
proved material removal rate. Addition of these powder particles in
to the dielectric fluid due to its low electrical resistivity significant
reduction of resistivity of the gap resulting in to increased spark
gap ensures better flushing of the debris followed by series of de-
sired discharges which causes improved MRR. Very low MRR is no-
ticed with drinking water used as dielectric medium. It is observed
that MRR is 3.74 mm3 /min at aluminium powder added in to the
drinking water and in significant decrease in MRR (3.66 mm3 /min)
is noticed when graphite powder mixed in to the drinking water
where as little increase in MRR (4.7 mm3 /min) is noticed when
4.5 g/l of combination of aluminium and graphite powder added
in to the drinking water dielectric. This may be due to increasing
discharge energy by not allowing high discharge frequencies and
causing more energy losses by heat conduction. Further, in EDM
metal is primarily removed in the liquid and vapour phase from the
work material, whereas the long pulse duration causes the plasma
channel to expand and this expansion causes less energy density
on the workpiece, which is insufficient to melt and/or vaporize the
workpiece material also excessive formation of gas, which affects
the breakdown characteristics of the dielectric. The process is of-
ten unstable, with partial superimposition of electrolytic processes
in the working gap. The deterioration in removal parameters for
water is attributable largely to the wider working gap and resultant
increased heat losses due to the higher conductivity of the medium.
B. Effect of Powders added in to dielectric fluids on SR:
The variation of SR with various powders and dielectric medium
is shown in Fig. 4. Comparison of SR values with different powders
and dielectric fluids is presented in Fig. 5. It is observed from the

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figure 4 that better surface finish is achieved with drinking water

used as dielectric medium. Less surface finish (2.25 µm) is observed
with the addition of 4.5 g/l of aluminium powder in to the drinking
water dielectric medium. Then there is in increase in surface finish
(3.07 µm) when 4.5 g/l of graphite powder mixed in to the drinking
water where as decrease in SR is noticed when 4.5 g/l of combina-
tion of aluminium and graphite powder mixed in to the drinking
water. The use of drinking water results in a better performance
in some situations in a wider range of machining conditions. This
has been attributed to the lower viscosity of water, which produces
less restriction of the discharge channel, thus reducing the energy
density and, as consequence, decreasing the material removal rate.
Moreover, the large amount of energy required to heat and vapor-
ise water compared with oil results in lower gas pressure in the
gap. Consequently the molten metal is not removed properly in
every discharge, because of the insufficient pressure produced by
the burst of water. Hence better surface finish is obtained with
drinking water as dielectric medium.

Figure 4: Variation of SR with various powders and dielectric

fluids

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Figure 5: Comparison of SR with various powders and dielectric

fluids

Surface finish of 4.9 m is noticed when 4.5 g/l of aluminium pow-

der added in to the drinking water dielectric medium and there
is an increase in SR (5.36 µm) is observed when graphite pow-
der mixed in the drinking water and decrease in SR (4.44 m) is
noticed when the combination of aluminium and graphite powder
added in to the drinking water dielectric medium. This may be
due to agglomeration and bridging effect of aluminium powder par-
ticles resulting increasing in spark intensity that causing increased
SR.When graphite powder added in EDM oil, the machining gap
is reduced. It drastically increases the conductivity and impul-
sive forces, resulting in high electrical discharge energy and gas
explosion makes expanded plasma zone resulting into increased sur-
face roughness with large, deeper craters. Since Graphite powder
has lower thermal conductivity, the insulating strength of dielectric
fluid is decreased and the gap distance has not noticeable increase.
Al powder has higher density and do not have proper capability
of suspension and flushing in the gap distance. In the high con-
centration of powders, the powder particles are deposited on the
work surface easier and electrical discharge instabilities in the form
of arc are happened on the machined surfaces of workpiece causes

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decrease in surface roughness.

4 CONCLUSIONS
The following conclusions were made from this work:

1. Better MRR is achieved with the same powders and quantity

is added in to the EDM Oil dielectric medium as compared
to the Drinking water used as dielectric medium.

2. However the surface finish is good when drinking water is used

as dielectric medium for the same powders and quantity but
very low MRR is obtained with drinking water as compared to
EDM oil it is concluded that this machining condition (drink-
ing water as dielectric medium) is not suitable for machining
the Nickel super alloy RENE80.

3. The better machining condition for machining RENE 80 is

combination of aluminium and graphite powder of 4.5 g/l
added in to the EDM oil dielectric medium since maximum
MRR (71.9 mm3 /min) and minimum SR (4.44 µ m) is achieved.

References
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[3] Zhao WS, Meng QG and Wang ZL. The application of research
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[4] Kansal HK, Singh S and Kumar P. An experimental study

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International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue

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