A study on electrical discharge machining of ZrB2-SiC composite using grey entropy analysis

In general, ceramic components are manufactured through powder metallurgy route at net shaped production, but special feature like holes of smaller diameter at different orientation is not possible to produce by this technique. Hence machining becomes inevitable. In this work machinability behavior of 85% ZrB₂+15% SiC during Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) with different tool material is carried out. The output responses are material removal rate, tool wear rate, roughness, roundness, taper angle and over cut. Entropy based grey relational analysis is applied for optimization of Pulse on time and off time. The tools are rated in the order of Titanium, Tungsten, Tantalum, Graphite and Niobium. Pulse on time of 7μs and pulse off time 1μs are selected as the best machining condition.