Carbon nanofibre assisted micro-electro discharge machining (μEDM) of Ti-6Al-4V alloy

Titanium alloys have found growing applications in aerospace, biomedical and marine industry. However, extreme hardness and strength cause difficulty in machining of titanium alloys. This is further complicated by the requirements of micro-features on hard to machine alloys. Micro-electro discharge machining (micro-EDM) is being investigated to match the requirement. However, slower removal rates and thermal effects are the issues in thermal erosion-based EDM process. In this work, we have investigated the efficacy of using carbon nanofibres (CNFs) mixed with the dielectric fluid for micro-machining of Ti-6Al-4V using micro-EDM. It is observed that the addition of CNFs not only improves electro-discharge frequency, material removal rate but also improves the surface roughness. Added nanofibres lowered the material migration and increased spark gap. We noted a significant influence of mixing CNFs in the dielectric fluid for enhancing machining performance characteristics in μEDM during micro hole generation on Ti-6Al-4V alloy.