Synthesis and Characterization of Titanium and Graphite Powder Mixed Electric Discharge Machining on Inconel 718 Sovan Bhowmick a,1 , Arindam Paul b , Nisantika Biswas c , Jhumpa De c , Subhasish Sarkar a and Gautam Majumdar a a Mechanical Engineering Department, Jadavpur University, India. b Department of Metallurgical and Material Engineering, Jadavpur University, India. c Department of Mechanical Engineering, Academy of Technology, India. Abstract. Electric discharge machining is extensively used to process difficult to cut materials such as superalloys, composite materials etc. The quality of machining can be improved by adding particles into the dielectric fluid which is commonly known as powder mixed electric discharge machining (PMEDM). In the present study, titanium and graphite powder are added to dielectric fluid and the effects of the powders have been analysed on material removal rate, surface roughness, microhardness and surface morphology analysis. Six experiments have been conducted considering each powder with three different levels of pulse current 4A, 8A and 12A. The analysis of the result indicates MRR, surface roughness and microhardness significantly increase with the increase of pulse current. Titanium mixed EDM improves the MRR and microhardness but reduces the surface quality. The SEM investigations elucidate that the samples machined with Titanium powder mixed with EDM have fewer surface defects, cracks, microholes and layer deposition compared to the sample machined with Graphite powder. Keywords. Powder mixed electric discharge machining, MRR, surface roughness, microhardness, SEM. 1. Introduction Electric discharge machining is a non-traditional machining process commonly used for machining or cutting conductive materials having poor machinability like superalloys, high strength alloys, composite materials etc. A die-sinking EDM is used in the tool and die manufacturing industry. The mechanism of the material removal is thermal corrosion that occurs on the surface of the workpiece. The difficulties faced during the machining are poor surface finish, low production rate, and poor surface integrity [1]. Several researches were done to enhance the surface quality and production rate out of which the most significant improvement is witnessed when the conductive metallic powder is added to the dielectric fluid during the machining process. In a study, The effect of graphite nanopowder on deionized water was investigated on Inconel 825 alloy and found a considerable improvement in MRR, surface quality and tool wear rate [2]. _______________________________ 1 Corresponding Author, Mechanical Engineering Department, Jadavpur University, Kolkata-700032 India, Email: svnbhowmick1@gmail.com Advanced Production and Industrial Engineering R.M. Singari and P.K. Kankar (Eds.) © 2022 The authors and IOS Press. This article is published online with Open Access by IOS Press and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0). doi:10.3233/ATDE220722 58