Recent investigations on the fabrication of ultra-thin silicon (Si) wafers using wire-electrical discharge machining (wire-EDM) were observed to possess some inherent limitations. This includes severe thermal damage, kerf-loss, and low slicing rate, which could be detrimental towards realizing actual practical applications. The extent of thermal damage, kerf-loss, and slicing rate largely depends on the process parameters such as open voltage (OV), servo voltage (SV), and pulse on-time (T on ). Therefore, choosing the optimal parameters that pertain to minimum thermal damage and kerf-loss while maintaining a higher slicing rate is the key to further excel in the fabrication of Si wafers using wire-EDM. Therefore, the present study is an effort to analyze and identify the optimal parameters that relate to the most effective Si slicing in wire-EDM. A central composite design (CCD) based response surface methodology (RSM) was used for optimizing the process parameters. The capability to slice Si wafers in wire-EDM was observed to be highly influenced by the discharge energy, which had a positive impact on the overall responses. The severity of thermal damages was observed to be mainly dominated by the variation in open voltage and T on due to the high diffusion of thermal energy into the workpiece, which led to intense melting and subsequent re-solidification. The parametric optimization resulted in OV = 84.32 V, SV = 42.98 V and T on = 0.62 μs as the most feasible parameter that relates to comparatively high slicing rate (0.65 mm/min), low kerf-loss (280 μm) and thermal damage (18 μm) for a given machine. In general, with a decrease in spark energy slicing rate and thermal damage decreases whereas, kerf-loss increases. When spark energy decreases by 83%, there is a nearly 55% decrease in slicing rate and thermal damage and a 10% increase in kerf-loss.

In this study a heat transfer model of machining of Ti-6Al-4V under the application of atomization-based cutting fluid spray coolant is developed to predict the temperature of the cutting tool. Owing to high tool temperature involved in machining of Ti-6Al-4V, the model considers film boiling as the major heat transfer phenomenon. In addition, the design parameters of the spray for effective cooling during machining are derived based on droplet-surface interaction model. Machining experiments are conducted and the temperatures are recorded using the inserted thermocouple technique. The experimental data are compared with the model predictions. The temperature field obtained is comparable to the experimental results, confirming that the model predicts tool temperature during machining with ACF spray cooling satisfactorily.

A novel method of using atomized dielectric spray in EDM to reduce the consumption of dielectric is developed in this study. The atomized dielectric droplets form a moving dielectric film up on impinging the work surface that penetrates the inter-electrode gap and acts as a single phase dielectric medium between the electrodes and also effectively removes the debris particles from the discharge zone. EDM experiments are performed using three different dielectric supply methods, viz., conventional wet-EDM (electrodes submerged in dielectric medium), dry-EDM and spray-EDM in order to compare the processes based on material removal, tool electrode wear and flushing of debris from the inter-electrode gap across a range of discharge energies. It is observed that spray-EDM produces higher material removal compared to the other two methods for all combinations of discharge parameters used in the study. The tool electrode wear using atomized dielectric is significantly better than dry-EDM and comparable to that observed in conventional wet-EDM. The percentage of debris particles deposited within a distance of 100 μm from the center of EDM crater is also significantly reduced using the atomized dielectric spray EDM technique.