Performance Analysis of Copper Coated Aluminum Tool in Electrode Discharge Machining of Ti-6Al-4V Alloy

Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) is one of the most popular nontraditional machining processes applied for machining very hard conductive materials with desired shape, size and dimensional accuracy. In this paper, copper-coated aluminium alloy is applied as EDM electrode instead of copper electrode. Electrodeposition, simple a nd economical process, was used for preparation of copper coating on aluminium alloy. The method of anodization was applied in order to get a strong adhesive copper coating on aluminium alloy substrate. Taguchi based design of experiment technique were used to form relationship of process parameters and response variables. The copper-coated surface was characterized with XRD report. Lower tool wear rate (TWR), surface roughness (SR) and higher material removal rate (MRR) were found for copper-coated aluminium alloy EDM electrode compare to uncoated aluminium alloy electrode. The micro-crack formation on machined surface was significantly decreased by using copper coated aluminum electrode.