Application of Grey Taguchi Method for Optimization of EDM Process Parameters on Stir Casted Aluminium Hybrid Metal Matrix Composites

Composites made of aluminium and other materials are now essential materials for a variety of engineering tasks, including those in the automotive industry. The present work reports on the machinability studies of Al 6061 hybrid metal matrix composites (HMMC). For the investigation, Al6061 alloy is reinforced with Boron carbide and Graphene nanoparticles (GNp) and the hybrid composite was prepared by stir casting under suitable conditions. The Electrical discharge machining (EDM), advanced machining process, was chosen to machine HMMC as it is difficult to machine by conventional machining. EDM machinablity studies were done on stir casted Al-B₄C-GNP composites. The optimization of EDM process parameters were carried out using L27 orthogonal approach with input parameters such as pulse on time, pulse off time and peak current for the response of material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness. To identify the significance of parameters on measured responses, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been done using Grey-Taguchi method and the most influential parameters for the output responses were determined.