Measurement and analysis of molybdenum wire erosion and deformation during wire electric discharge machining of Ti-6Al-4V alloy

With growing demands of manufacturing sector, wire erosion and breakage act as major challenges during wire electric discharge machining (WEDM) process. This paper reports an experimental investigation on the measurement and analysis of molybdenum wire erosion after WEDM of Ti-6Al-4V alloy at varying input levels viz. discharge voltage, discharge current, pulse duration, pulse off-time, and wire speed. A wire surface quality index for the tolerable limit of wire surface erosion was estimated using image processing technique. The mean of wire image histogram was used as an indicative tool to correlate the intensity of wire wear and the workpiece quality. The wire surface damages were analyzed with optical microscope and Field emission scanning electron microscope. The eroded wire surfaces reported damages in the form of craters, globules, microholes. It was observed that as the mean of image histogram decreases, the intensity of wire surface erosion increases.