Microstructural and Size Accuracy Study of Electrochemical Machined Aluminium Alloy Features

Abstract

The present work focuses on the machining of aluminium 6061 alloy workpiece electrodes using Electro-Chemical Machining (ECM) by varying the control parameters like voltage, feed rate and machining time. Scanning electron microscopy study is carried out to examine the microstructure of the craters of definite morphology machined on the workpiece. Optimum parameter settings to maximize the length, width and depth of the obtained features were studied individually through a parametric experimental design layout of Taguchi. The results reveal that the optimal parameter settings are found to be different for each performance objective. As a result, the grey Taguchi method has been adopted to convert the three objectives into a single objective and by considering the performance objectives concurrently, the process parameters were optimized. The favourable parameters to maximize the responses are determined to be voltage—15 V, feed rate—0.3 mm/min and machining time—5 min. Further, the effect of process parameters on the microstructure and size accuracy of the Al alloy features is studied. © 2019, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.