EFFECT OF EDM ASSISTED BY MAGNETIC FIELD ON SURFACE INTEGRITY OF ARMOURED STEEL

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Mechanical Design and Production Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering, Minoufiya University, Shebin El-Kom, Egypt

2 Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Helwan University, Helwan, Egypt

Abstract

In the present study, EDM assisted by magnetic field process is proposed. The effect of EDM assisted by magnetic field process parameters on the surface integrity of armoured steel (HV500) has been studied. The response surface methodology (RSM) is employed to identify the effect of EDM machining parameters, i.e., peak current, magnetic flux density, duty factor and flushing pressure, on the surface integrity of machined component. The process performance criterion such as surface roughness (Ra) was evaluated. RSM was employed to develop the experimental model. Experiments performed on a newly designed experimental setup developed in the laboratory. The surface integrity was also explored by the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and micro-hardness testing to evaluate the effects of the EDM process assisted by magnetic field. This paper studies the topography of the ED-machined surface, the size and the amount of cracks on the surface layer. Hardness variation in the depth of the defective layer, when machining with and without magnetic field of the copper and graphite electrodes under different machining conditions has also been tested. SEM, micro-hardness testing results together with surface topography investigation showed that EDM assisted by magnetic field has the applicability to improve surface integrity.

Keywords