Electrical Discharge Machining of Al(6351)–SiC–B₄C Hybrid Composite

Abstract

Metal matrix composites are found to have many applications in the materials and structural engineering field. In this work, an investigation is carried out to find the influence of process parameters such as pulse current (I), pulse on time (T on), pulse duty factor (τ), and voltage (V) on the machining of Al(6351)—5 wt% silicon carbide (SiC)—5 wt% boron carbide (B4C) hybrid composite through electrical discharge machining. The individual parameters were analyzed with an objective to minimize electrode wear ratio (EWR), surface roughness (SR), and power consumption (PC). The experimental result shows that the output responses were greatly influenced by pulse current, with a contribution of 33.08% to EWR, 76.65% to SR, and 48.08% to PC. The surface characteristics were also examined through scanning electron microscope and the presence of craters and recast layers was observed.