Influence of carbon coated WC electrode on drilling measures of Ti–6Al–4V alloy in µ - EDM process

Even though titanium alloy specimens are being used in many engineering applications, it is highly tedious to machine such materials using conventional machining process. It is very essential to enhance the process mechanism in micro electrical discharge machining (μ-EDM) process. In the present work, an effort was made to analyze the effects of carbon coating in tungsten carbide tool electrode. The influence of process parameters was also investigated on performance measures such as depth of cut, tool wear rate and overcut while machining titanium alloy specimens in μ-EDM process. Since the discharge energy is influenced by the capacitance, it can have most influence on depth of cut and tool wear rate. Due to the importance of voltage across the machining zone on determining side cut in the process, it can have most influence on overcut. From the surface morphology analysis, the less burrs of the orifice surface of the hole were observed with the coated electrode than uncoated electrode.