Investigation on material removal rate, surface and subsurface characteristics in wire electro discharge machining of Ti50Ni50-xCux shape memory alloy

Abstract

TiNiCu shape memory alloys have superior properties as compared with NITINOL due to their greater ductility, reduced hysteresis temperature range, and quick actuation response. The present article investigates the surface and subsurface modifications occurring due to wire electro discharge machining of Ti<inf>50</inf>Ni<inf>50-x</inf>Cu<inf>x</inf> shape memory alloy. The machining experiments were performed considering the pulse on time, pulse off time, and servo voltage as the process parameters. The influence of these parameters was studied on the material removal rate, surface roughness, recast layer thickness, microhardness, and phase changes in the machined surface. Longer pulse on time causes greater discharge energy, hence leading to higher material removal rate, surface roughness, and recast layer thickness. The machined surface hardness increased up to 900 Hv, which is about 59% increase with respect to the base material for longer pulse on time due to the recast layer thickness and the formation of oxides. A phase change on the machined surface was observed to cause the shape recoverability of the alloy. The microstructure, composition through EDAX, and the phase changes of the machined surface are also discussed in the article. © 2015, © IMechE 2015.