Optimization of Material Removal Rate, Surface Roughness and Kerf Width in Wire-ED Machining of Ti-6Al-4V Using RSM and Grey Relation

Wire-Electric Discharge (WED) Machining is one of the most suitable machining techniques for machining hard-to-cut materials such as Titanium, with precision. It is of utmost importance to optimize the control parameters to achieve the desired levels of machining performance characteristics. Considering this goal, this research investigates the effects of current, pulse on time (Ton) and pulse off time (Toff) on the material removal rate, surface roughness and kerf width of WED machined Ti-6Al-4V. The results of optimization showed that, current – 5.19 A, Ton – 20 µs, Toff – 30 µs, is the optimized settings for machining of Ti-6Al-4V alloy using molybdenum electrode for the best machining performance. Based on the analysis of grey relational grades, the order of influence of the control parameter is ranked as: Ton – I, Toff – II and Current – III. The efficacy of GRA based approach was evaluated through confirmation experiments wherein the theoretical predictions showed errors < 3%.