Response surface modelling of micro holes in electrochemical discharge machining process

Advancement of technologies has resulted in the innovation new engineering materials which are very difficult to machine with conventional machining process. To produce intricate features in these materials with conventional machining process will result in poor surface finish and will require thousands of slide movements. So new non-conventional machining process are introduced to machine difficult to machine materials. Electro Discharge Machining (EDM) and Electro Chemical Machining (ECM) are introduced to meet the needs of industry to machine conducting materials. But for non-conducting materials, a hybrid process combining the features of many conventional and non conventional machining process are required. Electro Chemical Discharge Machining (ECDM) is one such innovative non-conventional hybrid process, which can machine the conductive as well as non conductive engineering materials. In present research work, the effect of process parameters of ECDM on Material Removal Rate (MRR) is studied on borosilicate glass. The design of experiments is used for experimental layout plan for the conduction of experiments. As MRR is found to be non linear, Response Surface Modeling (RSM) is used for optimization of process parameters. The obtained results are validated with experimental results. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.