Investigations on technical feasibility of Jatropha curcas oil based bio dielectric fluid for sustainable electric discharge machining (EDM)

Abstract The emergence of the concept of sustainable manufacturing practices and, therefore, the requirement to adapt ISO-14000 standards, it is essential to evaluate all manufacturing practices using sustainability criteria. Use of vegetable oil-based fluids for industrial applications has a higher sustainability index compared to hydrocarbon and synthetic based fluids. In this paper, the authors have investigated the technical feasibility of newly proposed Jatropha curcas oil based bio dielectric (Jatropha BD) fluid for electric discharge machining (EDM) with a view to improving the sustainability of EDM process. Experimental analysis has been performed for material removal rate (MRR), surface roughness (SR) and surface hardness (SH) under the influence of current, gap voltage, pulse on time and pulse off time. analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been performed to identify the significance of the control parameters on the response characteristics. The results obtained indicate that Jatropha BD resulted in higher MRR, lower SR and improved SH than kerosene. Moreover, the response patterns of Jatropha BD are similar to kerosene which is an indication that material melting and evaporation mechanics are as like kerosene. Regression models have been generated to model the response behavior of the parameters. Regression models predicted the response of the parameters in good conformance. It is suggested that Jatropha oil based bio dielectric fluids can be used as an alternative to hydrocarbon based dielectric for improving sustainability of EDM process.

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