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This study is centered on the practicality of used cooking oil-based biodiesel (UCOB) as the dielectric for electrical discharge machining (EDM). To establish the usefulness of used cooking oil-based biodiesel as a dielectric for EDM, the essential properties of UCOB were determined and compared with ST EDM oil. Used cooking oil is an important source that can be employed for biodiesel production. Biodiesel was extracted by the process of transesterification. EDM performance was evaluated by applying a “one factor at a time” approach while machining Inconel-625 using EDM oil and bio-dielectric fluids. For both dielectric fluids, the material removal rate was observed to increase with discharge current. The lowest value of TWR was observed at 50 µs while the highest value was observed at 1000 µs. Thus, the performance trend for both fluids was similar. However, the performance of UCOB was slightly better than that of EDM oil. This variation is due to the difference in chemical composition of both dielectric fluids. The highest material removal rate 20.333 mm3/min was observed for UCOB operation at a discharge current of 12.48 A and the lowest material removal rate (0.123 mm3/min) was obtained with a discharge current of 1.56 A for EDM oil. It has been established that UCOB can be suitably utilized as dielectric fluid to increase the sustainability of the EDM process.

Biodiesel is a chemically modified eco-friendly fuel mainly used as a fuel in compression ignition engines. It is prepared from vegetable oil or animal fat. It is gaining worldwide popularity because it is a renewable, non-toxic, biodegradable, and non-flammable fuel. This paper gives an insight into various aspects of biodiesel. Literature review of biodiesel production, its performance in diesel engine, and the electrical discharge machining process are discussed along with other applications. An innovative biodiesel production plant of 20 L capacity has been designed and developed successfully. The conversion reaction was carried out for 20 L of used cooking oil and 4 L of methanol. The biodiesel production yield of 95.8% was observed for a 1:6 M ratio of methanol and used cooking oil using 200 gm of KOH catalyst at 60 °C for 1 h. In the second phase of the work, a framework for using biodiesel as a dielectric fluid during spark machining is presented. Using biodiesel during the spark machining process can reduce pollution and also enhances the sustainability of the process.

Since the first application of electric sparks for the material removal was demonstrated, the electric discharge machining (EDM) process has gone through considerable changes in terms of technology and application. The process has surpassed the technological barriers by overcoming its then thought limitations like processing speed, material conductivity, dimensional and geometrical accuracies, and surface finish. However, environmental impact due to release of toxic emission products, operator health concerns due to release of toxic fumes, vapours and aerosols during the process, poor operational safety due to fire hazards and electromagnetic radiation, and toxic and non-biodegradable dielectric waste generated are some of the concerns still prevailing in EDM process. Authors, in this paper, have assessed the operational feasibility of waste vegetable oil (WVO) as possible alternative dielectric fluid and compared the response patterns of WVO with hydrocarbon oil, kerosene. Experiments were performed using spark current, gap voltage, pulse on time (pulse duration) and pulse off time (pulse interval) as control parameters to study the response behaviour for material removal rate (MRR), electrode wear rate (EWR) and tool wear ratio (TWR). The results obtained reveal that WVO-based bio-dielectric fluid can be used as an alternate to hydrocarbon-, water- and synthetic-based dielectric fluids for EDM. Besides the successful trials for operational feasibility assessment, application of bio-fluids offers a cleaner, greener and safer solution for dielectric to improve sustainability of EDM process by improving environmental friendliness, operational safety and personnel health issues of the process. Based on the experimental results and observations, the authors have suggested further scope of works to improve sustainability of the EDM process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is centered on the practicality of used cooking oil-based biodiesel (UCOB) as the dielectric for electrical discharge machining (EDM). To establish the usefulness of used cooking oil-based biodiesel as a dielectric for EDM, the essential properties of UCOB were determined and compared with ST EDM oil. Used cooking oil is an important source that can be employed for biodiesel production. Biodiesel was extracted by the process of transesterification. EDM performance was evaluated by applying a "one factor at a time" approach while machining Inconel-625 using EDM oil and bio-dielectric fluids. For both dielectric fluids, the material removal rate was observed to increase with discharge current. The lowest value of TWR was observed at 50 µs while the highest value was observed at 1000 µs. Thus, the performance trend for both fluids was similar. However, the performance of UCOB was slightly better than that of EDM oil. This variation is due to the difference in chemical composition of both dielectric fluids. The highest material removal rate 20.333 mm3/min was observed for UCOB operation at a discharge current of 12.48 A and the lowest material removal rate (0.123 mm3/min) was obtained with a discharge current of 1.56 A for EDM oil. It has been established that UCOB can be suitably utilized as dielectric fluid to increase the sustainability of the EDM process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiesel is a chemically modified eco-friendly fuel mainly used as a fuel in compression ignition engines. It is prepared from vegetable oil or animal fat. It is gaining worldwide popularity because it is a renewable, non-toxic, biodegradable, and non-flammable fuel. This paper gives an insight into various aspects of biodiesel. Literature review of biodiesel production, its performance in diesel engine, and the electrical discharge machining process are discussed along with other applications. An innovative biodiesel production plant of 20 L capacity has been designed and developed successfully. The conversion reaction was carried out for 20 L of used cooking oil and 4 L of methanol. The biodiesel production yield of 95.8% was observed for a 1:6 M ratio of methanol and used cooking oil using 200 gm of KOH catalyst at 60 °C for 1 h. In the second phase of the work, a framework for using biodiesel as a dielectric fluid during spark machining is presented. Using biodiesel during the spark machining process can reduce pollution and also enhances the sustainability of the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]