Experimental investigation of MRR and surface roughness of EN-18 steel in ECM

Abstract

Electrochemical machining (ECM) is one of the important non-traditional machining process for machining hard materials which are difficult to cut , high strength and heat resistant materials into complex shape. Electrochemical machining has vast application in Automotive, Aircrafts, Aerospace, textile industries etc. Its industrial applications has extended to drilling, deburring, grinding and polishing so studies on Material Removal Rate (MRR) and surface roughness is extremely important. Use of optimal process parameters can significantly reduce the ECM operating, tooling and maintenance cost and will produce components of higher accuracy. This paper investigates the effect and parametric optimization of process parameters for ECM of EN-18 steel alloy. The process parameter considered are applied voltage and Feed rate are optimized for getting high MRR and good surface finish by using Taguchi approach.