Experimental Analysis and Surface Morphology of Holes Made by Electrical Discharge Machining on MoSi2-SiC Composite

A feasibility study of machining molybdenum disilicide–silicon carbide composites using copper electrodes was investigated and evaluated in this research. High-temperature tools, including extruders, metal shapers, turbine blades, ladles, and crucibles, have been fabricated from such composites. Molybdenum disilicide–silicon carbide composites are challenging to machine in conventional ways. With spark electrical discharge machining, manufacturers can easily satisfy geometric tolerances and accomplish accurate measurements. Measurement characteristics such as material removal rate (0.03124 g/min), top radial overcut (0.1395 mm), wear ratio (3.5812), surface roughness (0.295 µm), tool wear rate (0.00181 g/min), cylindricity (0.142 mm), bottom radial overcut (0.0898 mm), taper angle (5.8952), run out (0.145 mm), perpendicularity (0.019 mm), and circularity (0.172 mm) were evaluated by gray relational analysis during the sparking process. The most important machining factors were found to be current (34.6749%), sparking ON time (25.6502%), and gap voltage (12.0462%), and they were identified using an analysis of variance based on gray relational analysis. As the 23rd possible combination of experiment parameters, the best combination of results was determined as A5B3C2D1E5. Finally, the validation experiment, conducted using spark electrical discharge machining, verifies and enhances the performance properties of ceramic composites. The gray relational rank for multi-performance enhancements of the spark eroding process also increased, from 0.7455 to 0.7782. Recent industrial applications of electrical discharge machining of molybdenum disilicide–silicon carbide composites demonstrate that the suggested method is good and provides guidance for precision manufacture.