Effect of Peak Current on Material Removal Rate During EDM of Ti–6Al–4V Using Cold Treated Brass Electrode

Ti–6Al–4V or Titanium Grade 5 alloy is the workhorse material of many vital industries, including aerospace, automobile, biomedical, and die industries. The titanium alloy is not preferred to machines using conventional techniques because of the poor machinability due to its hardness and poor thermal conductivity. Electric discharge machining can cut any material irrespective of its hardness and is one of the potential machining operations for machining titanium alloys. Apart from its ability to cut any material, the EDM process's material removal rate (MRR) is very low. The current research focuses on exploring the effect of peak current on MRR using cold treated brass electrode compared with a non-treated brass electrode. MRR increases with an increase in peak current, and it drops at higher peak current values. Cold treatment of brass electrodes has a positive effect on the MRR when compared with the non-treated electrode.