Micromachining of Al7075 alloy using an in-situ ultrasonicated µ-ECDM system

Abstract

Al7075 is a lightweight metal alloy essentially used in various engineering sectors possessing applications in aerospace, military, missile, etc. Miniaturized machining operations have placed a great deal of pressure on the conventional machining capabilities of Al7075 alloys as they possess certain challenges due to their ductile and unique adhesive nature, which must be overcome. The present study focuses on generating through-holes on Al7075 alloy using an electrolyte ultrasonication-assisted µ-ECDM system. The FCC-RSM factorial-based design is chosen at three levels to carry out experimentation with process characteristics voltage (V), concentration (wt%), and duty factor (%DF). The material removal rate (MRR), top hole overcut (TOC), bottom hole overcut (BOC), and circularity (CIR) are the machining responses. JAYA algorithm, a multi-objective optimization is performed, and optimal process parameters are obtained using the R method. Further, RSM based desirability approach is also used to obtain optimal process parameters and compared them with results obtained from R-method and found to be relatively close. © 2023 Taylor & Francis.