Fuzzy Modeling for Electrical Discharge Machining of Aluminum Alloy

Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is widely used process in the production of mould / dies, aerospace, automobile and electronics industries where intricate complex shapes need to be machined in very hard materials. The selection of the AISI 64430 was made taking into account its wide range of applications in the industrial field: defense, pharmaceutical, aerospace, shipbuilding industries etc. In this paper an attempt has been made to develop the mathematical model for predicting die-sinking electrical discharge machining of AISI 64430 (HE 30) aluminum alloy characteristics such as the metal removal rate (MRR), the tool wear rate (TWR), the surface roughness (Ra value) and the hardness(HRB) using fuzzy mathematical method. The process parameters taken in to consideration were the current (I), the open-circuit voltage (V), the servo (Sv) and the duty cycle (η). A fuzzy rule base characterizing the relationship between input and output parameters was built through experiments. The design of experiments technique has been used to conduct the experiments, which in turn reduced the number of experiments. The prediction of metal removal rate, the tool wear rate, the surface roughness and the hardness was achieved under the condition of given input parameters by rule-based fuzzy reasoning. The predicted results were analyzed through experimental verification. The model predicted values and measured values were fairly close to each other. To have more precise investigation into the model, a regression analysis of experimental and predicted outputs was performed. It was found that the R 2 (R: coefficient of determination) values are 0.9015, 0.9702, 0.9932 and 0.844 for the metal removal rate, the tool wear rate, the surface roughness and the hardness, respectively.