Effect of wire EDM conditions on generation of residual stresses in machining of aluminum 2014 T6 alloy

Wire electrical discharge machining (EDM) possesses many advantages over the conventional manufacturing process. Hence, this process was used for machining of all conductive materials; especially, nowadays this is the most common process for machining of aerospace aluminum alloys. This process produces complex shapes in aluminum alloys with extremely tight tolerances in a single setup. But, for good surface integrity and longer service life, the residual stresses generated on the components should be as low as possible and it depends on the setting of process parameters and the material to be machined. In wire EDM, much of the work was concentrated on Titanium alloys, Inconel alloys and various types of steels and partly on aluminum alloys. The present investigation was a parametric analysis of wire EDM parameters on residual stresses in the machining of aluminum alloy using Taguchi method. The results obtained had shown a wide range of residual stresses from 8.2 to 405.6 MPa. It also influenced the formation of various intermetallics such as AlCu and AlCu3. Microscopic examination revealed absence of surface cracks on aluminum surface at all the machining conditions. Here, an attempt was made to compare the results of aluminum alloy with the available machined data for other metals.