An experimental investigation on fabricated TW-ECSM setup during micro slicing of nonconductive ceramic

The machining of advanced nonconductive ceramic like aluminum oxide (Al2O3) ceramic continues to be a major challenge for user industries. This study focuses on the development of a traveling wire electrochemical spark machining (TW-ECSM) setup to overcome the machining problem of nonconductive Al2O3 ceramic. The feasibility of the fabricated setup has been experimentally verified. Based on Taguchi design of experiment, a specific number of experiments have been carried out to investigate the parametric effect of the fabricated TW-ECSM setup on material removal and spark gap width. From the experimental results and analysis of variance, it is evident that the parameters electrolyte concentration and DC supply voltage are the most significant and significant parameters for material removal and spark gap width over micro slice, respectively. The optimal parametric combinations for higher material removal and lower spark gap width over micro slice are proposed for useful machining of Al2O3 ceramic. The mathematical models for material removal and spark gap width over micro slice are established to investigate the influence of cutting parameters during micro slicing of Al2O3-ceramic by developed TW-ECSM setup. Confirmation test results established the fact that the developed mathematical relations are appropriate for effectively representing the response characteristics of the developed TW-ECSM setup.