Experimental Investigation of Drilling Small Hole on Duplex Stainless Steel (SS 2205) Using EDM

Abstract

Abstract This work investigates drilling of small holes of 3 mm in diameter on duplex stainless steel. Its machinability index is very low (0.66) when compared to other steels; hence, electrical discharge machining is used. The input parameters are current, spark gap, and dielectric pressure. Each input parameter is considered for three levels. Therefore, the total number of experiments is 3 × 3 × 3 = 27. To reduce the number of runs, Taguchi L9 orthogonal array is used, which have the advantage of maximum and minimum trial runs in its design. The output response is metal removal rate (MRR). To find the best operating parameter, the regression model generated using ANOVA is given as input for MATLAB genetic algorithm (GA). The experimental results indicated that models are significant. The test result indicated that the contribution of the current on the MRR is 42.42%, dielectric pressure is 35.36%, and spark gap is 1.93%. From GA, it is observed that among these three factors, lower value of current and dielectric pressure produced the maximum MRR. The SS 2205 has wide variety of applications, such as high pressure components and control valves, which have large number of components attached to it. Hence, performing micro holes on such high hardness alloy is useful.