Abstract—EDM is used for machining of parts of aerospace, automobile, nuclear and surgical industry. In this research paper an attempt has been made to study the effect of cryogenic treatment on powder metallurgy copper tungsten electrode at different machining parameters, i.e., peak current, gap voltage, duty cycle, polarity and electrode type during EDM of H11 tool steel. H11 is basically 5% chromium and 1.5% molybdenum hot work tool steel. The presence of molybdenum in H11 increases its hardness and is usually known as difficult to machine by conventional machining process. This research work was undertaken to study the machining performance of EDM with different electrodes, i.e., PM copper tungsten (CuW) (75% cu and 25% tungsten) and cryogenically treated PM copper tungsten (CuW) tool electrode on H11 hot work tool steel. A L18 Taguchi’s standard orthogonal array is used for experimental design by varying different input machining parameters such as current, gap voltage, duty cycle, polarity, retract distance and their effect on material removal rate (MRR). It was found that material removal rate is maximum with cryogenically treated powder metallurgy copper tungsten (CuW) tool electrode with peak current (14A) at gap voltage (60V) and duty cycle (0.72) in +VE polarity.

Index Terms—Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM), Material Removal Rate (MRR), Powder Metallurgy (PM), Taguchi method, Cryogenic Copper tungsten (CuW)

Cite: Kulwinder Singh and Dinesh Kumar, "To Study the Effect of Copper Tungsten and Cryogenic Copper Tungsten Electrode on Material Removal Rate during Electrical Discharge Machining of H11," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 224-233, January 2015.