Journal of King Saud University – Engineering Sciences (2018) 30, 368–376

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ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Surface integrity of wire EDMed aluminum alloy:

A comprehensive experimental investigation
Pujari Srinivasa Rao a,*, Koona Ramji b, Beela Satyanarayana c

a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, GITAM University, Visakhapatnam, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, India
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Veltech Dr. RR & Dr. SR Technical University, Chennai, India

Received 16 May 2016; accepted 8 December 2016

Available online 19 December 2016

KEYWORDS Abstract A comprehensive experimental investigation in surface integrity is characterized by mea-

Wire EDM; surement of residual stresses, altered composition of the surface, surface roughness, white layer
Aluminum alloy; thickness, heat affected zone, surface morphology, hardness and corrosion resistance tests. The
Surface integrity available literature on surface integrity studies was confined to a few of the above aspects and these
studies were mostly concentrated on machining of variety of steels, titanium, inconel and nickel
based alloys. In this paper aluminum 2014 T6 alloy has been selected for comprehensive study
on surface integrity. The parameter settings influenced the residual stresses and a wide range of val-
ues were obtained varying from 8.2 to 405.6 MPa. The effect of parameter settings was also evident
on the thickness of white layer and surface morphology. No surface cracks were observed at all
machining conditions. The diffusion of elements from wire to surface resulted in the formation
of various intermetallic compounds like AlCu and AlCu3 which in turn affected the mechanical
and chemical properties of the surface. The elastic properties of intermetallics and galvanic coupling
created between the aluminum matrix and intermetallics greatly affected the hardness and corrosion
resistance respectively.
Ó 2016 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is
an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction cesses were mainly intended for machining of hard metals,

but in today’s manufacturing sector, they are used for machin-
Wire electrical discharge machining (EDM) is an important ing of all types of conductive materials due to its ability to
unconventional machining process. Earlier, the EDM pro- machine precise, complex, and irregular shapes of the surfaces
(Baraskar et al., 2013; Saedon et al., 2014). But the selection of
* Corresponding author. Fax: +91 891 279 0399. proper machining condition is essential for obtaining the good
E-mail address: pujari.vizag@gmail.com (P. Srinivasa Rao). surface integrity as it has great impact on parts function.
Peer review under responsibility of King Saud University. In view of that many researchers attempted the surface
integrity studies on the wire EDMed surface, in which Li
et al. (2014) worked on Inconel 718 and evaluated the surface
integrity aspects by considering the surface roughness, surface
Production and hosting by Elsevier alloying and hardness characteristics. Goswami and Kumar

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2016.12.001
1018-3639 Ó 2016 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Surface integrity of wire EDMed aluminum alloy 369

(2014) investigated surface integrity aspects in machining of such as hydraulic and injection mold components, aerospace
Nimonic alloy 80 A. Material removal rate (MRR) and wire structural components, extrusion dies and form tools. With
wear ratio were considered as the machining outputs. Anish today’s high speed wire EDM machines high quality parts can
kumar et al. (2014) presented an experimental investigation be produced economically (Klocke et al., 2013), but for longev-
on pure titanium and they mainly focused on micro- ity of the machined components they should possess good sur-
structural analysis. Li et al. (2013) presented the characteristics face integrity. The existing literature in WEDM on aluminum
of surface integrity versus discharge energy in wire EDM of alloys was mostly restricted to measuring of a few responses
Inconel 718. Liu et al. (2014) studied surface integrity of shape (Selvakumar et al., 2014; Arooj et al., 2014; Ravindranadh
memory alloy (Nitinol) and explored the machining effects on et al., 2015) like surface roughness, material removal rate, white
white layer and hardness. Klocke et al. (2016) investigated the layer thickness etc; so there was a dearth of information for find-
effect of different heat treatments on surface integrity. Two ing the effect of wire EDM parameters on surface integrity. The
different micro-structural states of the tempering steel primarily utilized aluminum alloy in aerospace and defense
42CrMo4 (AISI4140 steel) were compared based on material applications is 2024-T4 and for applications where higher
removal rate, surface roughness, and recast layer thickness. strength is required the following alloys 2014-T6, 7075-T6,
Navas et al. (2008) performed the surface integrity studies on 7079-T6 and 7178-T6 were commonly used. Aluminum 2014
AISI O1 tool steel components machined by grinding, hard T6 was used for making wing tension members, shear webs
turning and wire EDM. Patel et al. (2009) machined the cera- and ribs in aerospace applications.
mic composite materials and observed the strength degrada- Here, aluminum 2014 T6 having thermal conductivity of
tion of components due to electric discharge machining. 154 W/mK and melting point 638 °C was selected to find the
Boujelbene et al. (2009) studied the influence of two types of influence of process parameters on surface integrity.
steels on surface integrity by measuring white layer thickness,
MRR, electrode wear rate and micro hardness. The past liter- 2. Experimental strategy
ature reveals that only a few responses were considered for
investigation of surface integrity. Earlier, the authors of this paper had conducted experiments
Surface integrity is described by topological, mechanical, on wire EDM by considering the three parameters as given
metallurgical and chemical conditions of the surface region in Table 1 and investigated the effect of wire EDM conditions
(Mohammadi et al., 2008). It is characterized by measurement on generation of residual stresses in machining of aluminum
of residual stresses, altered composition of the surface, surface 2014 T6 alloy and published the same as given in Ref. Rao
roughness, white layer thickness, heat affected zone, surface et al. (2016). In design of experiments the selection of a partic-
morphology, hardness and corrosion resistance tests. In the ular orthogonal array (OA) depends on number of control fac-
past literature all the above aspects of surface integrity were tors that are of interest, number of levels for each factor,
not performed on the same specimens, so it is difficult to number of runs that can be performed and impact of other
describe the surface integrity exactly. Moreover, machine tool conditions such as cost and time. The number of parameters
tables often do not provide the information related to effects of considered in residual stress measurements was 3 with 2 levels
machining condition on properties of machined surface. A each. So, the total number of experimental conditions obtained
comprehensive experimental investigation on surface integrity was 8 (23 = 8). Hence, L8 orthogonal array was selected to
would be a solution for the above. conduct experiments for all 8 possible combinations. The
As EDM is a thermo electric process, the components experimental strategy used was full factorial design of high res-
machined by this process are influenced by thermal properties olution, which facilitates evaluation of main effects (TON, IP,
of the material especially thermal conductivity and melting SV), 2-way (TON*IP, IP*SV, SV*TON) and 3-way (TON*IP*-
point (Khan, 2008). Most of the past literature in EDM pro- SV) interaction effects on residual stresses. Macroscopic resid-
cesses on surface integrity was limited to machining of Inconel ual stresses were measured in aluminum phase and the
718, Ti6Al4V, various types of steels like AISI H13 tool steel, observed residual stresses are given in Table 2. The further
AISI 304 stainless steel, EN8 medium carbon steel etc. The ther- experiments in surface integrity viz., chemical analysis, phase
mal conductivity and melting point of the above materials were analysis, white layer, surface morphology, hardness and corro-
in the range of 6.7–28.6 W/mK and 1336–1660 °C respectively, sion resistance tests were performed only on identified cases of
indicating low thermal conductivity and high melting point. In residual stresses as described in the following Section 2.1.
order to completely study the effect of wire EDM parameters
on various materials it was suggested to select a material having 2.1. Identification of cases
properties different from the above, i.e., high thermal conduc-
tivity and low melting point. The materials like aluminum alloys
possess the above properties and the components made from It is difficult to perform all the experiments in surface integrity
aluminum alloys are in high demand in aerospace, satellite at all the machining conditions of residual stresses. So, in order
and defense applications. The latest five-axis machining centers
and multi-axis turning centers can produce various shapes of
aluminum components with tight tolerances, whereas, wire
EDM and sinker EDM machines were generally used for pro- Table 1 Control factors and their levels.
duction of complex shapes of aluminum components with extre- Control factors Level 1 Level 2 Units
mely tight tolerances in a single setup. Since there was no Pulse on time (TON) 105 110 ls
contact with the workpiece in EDM it produces very fine shapes Peak current (IP) 10 12 Ampere
that were not possible with traditional machining. Hence this Spark gap voltage (SV) 8 22 Volts
process was used for machining of a wide variety of products,
370 P. Srinivasa Rao et al.

Table 2 The obtained residual stress values in machining of aluminum 2014-T6 (Rao et al., 2016).
Trial No. Residual stresses (MPa)
TON IP SV Replicate 1 Replicate 2
1 105 10 8 67.5 90.6
2 105 10 22 22.1 8.2
3 105 12 8 299.2 309.0
4 105 12 22 269.5 245.8
5 110 10 8 236.4 232.3
6 110 10 22 218.9 229.8
7 110 12 8 405.6 382.0
8 110 12 22 328.2 317.1

to save cost and time three machining conditions were selected received material was a plate of 150 mm diameter and
from Table 2 for further experiments in surface integrity. In 10 mm thick. The chemical composition of as received material
Table 2 it was observed that the highest residual stresses were is confirmed by performing Energy Dispersive X-ray Spec-
obtained at the following machining condition of troscopy (EDS) analysis using JEOL JSM-6610LV scanning
TON = 110 ls, IP = 12 A and SV = 8 V which was referred electron microscope (SEM) and is given in Table 3. At various
as case-1 (Trial 7 in Table 2). Similarly the least values of resid- parameter settings the material was cut into 15  20 mm size
uals stresses were obtained at the following machining condi- for performing surface integrity studies. The EDS analysis
tion TON = 105 ls, IP = 10 A and SV = 22 V which was was also performed on the specimens after undergoing the wire
referred as case-2 (Trial 2 in Table 2). The influence of TON EDM process to find its chemical composition. The white layer
and IP in discharge energy and in turn on generation of resid- measurements were also made using the same equipment, but
ual stresses as in case-1 & 2 is explained here. The basic prin- in a transversal cross section of machined surface. The mor-
ciple in EDM process is the conversion of electrical energy into phological characterization was done using SEM and stylus
heat energy. To control the heat energy one has to control the type profilometer, Talysurf 10. The cutoff length used for sur-
electrical energy applied across the electrode and workpiece face roughness measurements was 0.8 mm and an average of
through the electrical parameters like TON and IP (Gaikwad five readings was recorded. The SEM photographs were taken
and Jatti, 2018). The energy content of a single spark discharge with and without applying etchant to observe the possible for-
can be expressed as a product of TON  IP. So the single pulse mation of surface cracks. The composition of etchant used in
discharge energy increases with increasing TON and IP values. this investigation was distilled water 92 ml, nitric acid 6 ml,
Investigations on the residual stresses of EDMed components hydrofluoric acid 2 ml and the samples were immersed in this
show an increase of their magnitude with increasing pulse bath for a period of 15 s. Micro-hardness test was conducted
energy (Ekmekci, 2007). From the above discussion it is clear on Vickers digital micro hardness tester, DHV-1000, with a
that the parameters TON and IP are known for their dominant load of 2.94 N (300 g) as surface properties are of interest here
control or greatest effect in generation of residual stresses (Lee hence micro hardness measurements are appropriate. The
et al., 2011; Younis et al., 2015). Besides TON and IP, SV had specimens were prepared using smetco polimet-1 for polishing
also shown significant effects on residual stresses (Rao et al., and grinding for a while, not removing the surface layer
2016). Hence, in order to study the effect of SV in the remain- greater than 2 lm. On each specimen an average of five trials
ing experiments of surface integrity another machining condi- were conducted. The cutting speed values which were dis-
tion at TON = 105 ls, IP = 10 A and SV = 8 V was played on the monitor of the machine tool in mm/min were
considered, which was referred as case-3 (Trial 1 in Table 2). used for finding the influence of wire EDM parameters on var-
The reason for considering case-3 is to facilitate the compar- ious responses in surface integrity. Pitting corrosion resistance
isons between case-1 & 3 (which have the same spark gap volt- was used to characterize the chemical properties of machined
age i.e. SV = 8 V) and case-2 & 3 (which have the same TON surface in this investigation. A saturated calomel electrode
and IP) to find the effect of spark energy and spark gap volt- (SCE) and carbon electrodes were used as reference and
age. In the above three cases cutting speed values were auxiliary electrodes respectively, and a software based PAR
recorded and it is found to be 3.24, 0.83 and 1.37 mm/ electrochemical system of GILL AC was used to measure
min in case-1, 2 and 3 respectively.

2.2. Experimental setup

Table 3 Chemical composition of as received aluminum 2014
All the machining operations were conducted on Ultra Cut T6 alloy.
843/f2 CNC wire EDM. The de-ionized water was used as Elements in percentage of weight
dielectric fluid and the electrode was zinc coated brass wire. Copper (Cu) 4.70 Titanium (Ti) 0.025
Residual stress measurements were made in the direction of Silicon (Si) 0.74 Chromium (Cr) 0.009
feed using PANalytical X-Pert Pro materials research diffrac- Manganese (Mn) 0.61 Lead (Pb) 0.005
Magnesium (Mg) 0.452 Tin (Sn) 0.005
tion (MRD) system. The intermetallic phases which were
Iron (Fe) 0.195 Nickel (Ni) 0.003
developed during machining were also identified by the same
Zinc (Zn) 0.030 Lithium (Li) <0.001
system. The material used here was aluminum 2014 T6 which Aluminum (Al) 93.23
is solution heat treated and artificially aged alloy and the as
Surface integrity of wire EDMed aluminum alloy 371

potential. The experiments were conducted in aerated 3.5% alloys in various applications allowed us to identify the follow-
NaCl solution with pH adjusted to 10 by adding potassium ing solid solution phases (intermetallic compounds) from the
hydroxide. The potential scan was carried out at 0.166 mV/s direction of aluminum as Al, AlCu, Al2Cu, AlCu3, AlCu4, Al2-
with an initial potential of 0.25 V (OC) SCE to final pitting Cu3 and Al4Cu9 (Trykov et al., 2008). The formation energy of
potential and the exposure area for these experiments was AlCu was less when compared to AlCu3, indicating a relatively
1 cm2. weak chemical interaction between Al–Cu (Pismenskaya et al.,
2000). Availability of Cu in the bulk material is constant at all
3. Results and discussion the machining conditions, but the diffusion of Cu from tool
electrode to workpiece depends on the spark energies and tem-
3.1. Chemical analysis peratures generated during machining. So, the formation of
AlCu3 in case-1, itself indicates the generation of high spark
energies and higher Cu availability. In case-2, the formation
The zinc coated copper wire typically alloyed in the range of
of AlCu intermetallic indicates lower spark energies as this
63–65% copper and 35–37% zinc was used for machining.
phase forms at low formation energies, whereas in case-3,
The high temperatures generated during machining leads to
the intermetallic obtained was same as in case-2, indicating
the diffusion of elements from wire to work surface and chan-
that the increased spark energies due to lower levels of SV
ged the composition of the surface. The copper and zinc wt%
may not be sufficient to form a new phase in the series of
of the aluminum 2014 T6 alloy before undergone wire EDM
Al–Cu intermetallic compounds. The analysis shows that, the
process was 4.7 and 0.03 respectively as given in Table 3.
interaction effect of SV with TON and IP is most significant,
The copper and zinc wt% of the samples machined at case-1,
whereas SV as an individual parameter had shown no effect
2 and 3 is given in Table 4. An increase in copper and zinc
in the formation of new phases.
wt% was observed for all the above three cases when com-
pared to as received material which manifests the diffusion
of these elements from tool to workpiece. The varied diffusion 3.3. White layer thickness (WLT)
of these elements may be affected by spark energies which in
turn on parameter settings and their levels. With the diffusion The sparks produced during wire EDM process locally melts
of copper, its availability for solid solution with aluminum was the material surface and a portion of this molten metal is then
increased and led to generation of intermetallic phases of AlCu ejected and flushed away. The remaining material rapidly re-
and AlCu3 as discussed in the following section. The migration solidifies to form a surface layer known as the recast layer.
of elements from electrode to workpiece was in line with the This recast layer is referred as white layer since it is difficult
past literature (Newton et al., 2009). to etch and its appearance under optical microscope is white.
Beneath the recast layer, a heat affected zone (HAZ) is formed
3.2. Phase analysis due to rapid heating and quenching cycles during wire EDM.
The white layer and HAZ can contain an altered microstruc-
The material under investigation was a 2XXX series type of ture, tensile stresses, microcracks, impurities, and other unde-
aluminum–copper (Al–Cu) alloy and therefore different inter- sirable features which can lead to premature part failure when
metallic compounds of Al–Cu was observed on the machined put to service (Newton et al., 2009). Hence the thermal damage
surface. The X-ray diffraction patterns were depicted for the caused by EDM has great concern since it will deteriorate sur-
cases with 1 s per step and varying range from lower side of face integrity and functionality of the EDMed components
10° to a maximum of 120° with a step size of 0.050. The (Guo et al., 2013; Liu et al., 2014). The white layer thickness
XRD pattern shown in Fig. 1 for case-1 with 2h angle varying obtained in case-1, 2 and 3 were 50 lm, 12 lm and
from 85° to 115° shows the AlCu3 (b-phase) at a 2h angle of 28 lm as shown in Figs. 4–6 respectively.
approximately 94.5°. Figs. 2 and 3 present the XRD patterns The WLT values obtained for the above three cases were
between 40° to 120° and 10° to 120° for case-2 and case-3 higher because of the thermal properties of aluminum alloy,
respectively. In both the cases Al, AlCu (g-phase) phases were which is not desirable. As the portion of the material which
observed at a peak of 52.53° in case-2 and for case-3 the experiences thermal effects was more hence more amounts of
observed peaks are at an angle of 40.62° and 52.55°. material were melted, so the dielectric was unable to clear away
The formation of above intermetallics depends on the for- the material debris, resulting in formation of higher recast lay-
mation energies attained in kJ/mol per atom and the availabil- ers in this investigation. The higher cutting speed values were
ity of copper (Cu) concentration. Phase analysis of Al–Cu indicated by higher spark energies and resulted in thicker

Table 4 Elemental composition of the surface machined at various conditions.

Element Series Case-1 Case-2 Case-3
Weight% Weight% Weight%
Mg K 0.39 0.43 0.41
Al K 82.82 90.39 88.33
Si K 0.71 0.74 0.74
Cu L 11.08 6.26 7.65
Zn L 5.0 2.18 2.87
100 100 100
372 P. Srinivasa Rao et al.

and 16 lm respectively was observed. From the above results

it was found that the parameter SV had considerably influ-
enced the thickness of the white layer. In all the cases heat
affected zone (HAZ) was clearly evident. The WLT values in
the present investigation were observed high but with the sac-
rifice of MRR the WLT values can be obtained as low as
3–5 lm for aluminum alloy (Rao et al., 2014).

3.4. Surface morphology

Surface morphology is characterized by surface roughness,

ridge-rich surfaces, micro voids and cracks (Guu, 2005). The
roughness value of 3.70 lm in case-1, 1.61 lm in case-2 and
2.01 lm in case-3 was measured. The main reason for higher
roughness value at case-1 condition is the combined effect of
all the parameters. At higher values of TON and IP the dis-
charge energies were high and hence higher roughness was pro-
Fig. 1 Plot of XRD pattern for case-1 machining condition. duced. In addition, at lower value of SV the current can take a
path of least resistance and a high current arc is seen which
damages the workpiece surface resulting in higher roughness.
The converse to the above is also true, i.e., lower values of
TON and IP gives lower discharge energies and the higher
value of SV means that gap is enough for ionization to occur
and low current will flow, resulting in lower roughness at
case-2 condition. Intermediate value was obtained at case-3
condition.
The obtained SEM photographs as shown in Figs. 7–9
depict a rippled surface, number of cavities and overlapping
craters, demonstrate a wire EDM surface, as reported by
others (Yan et al., 2005). The slightly wider machined pocks
in case-1, micro voids and narrow pocks in case-2, rippled sur-
face in case-3 indicate the variation of discharge energies due
to varied parameter settings. The ridge rich surface was formed
due to melting and expelling of molten metal during machining
and the escape of entrapped gases causes the formation of
micro voids.
Fig. 2 Plot of XRD pattern for case-2 machining condition. Surface cracks were not observed at all the cases in this
investigation. The formation of surface cracks was attributed
to the differentials of high contraction stresses exceeding the
material’s ultimate tensile strength (Tai and Lu, 2009) but
the maximum residual stress value of 405.6 MPa obtained in
this investigation is less than the ultimate tensile strength
(483 MPa) of aluminum 2014 T6 alloy. As this material is

Fig. 3 Plot of XRD pattern for case-3 machining condition.

recast layers as in case-1. At higher values of TON and IP the

white layer thickness was observed high as in literature (Dhobe
et al., 2013). The effect of SV was estimated by comparing Fig. 4 SEM photograph showing white layer and HAZ at case-1
case-3 with case-1 & 2, and a change in WLT of 22 lm condition.
Surface integrity of wire EDMed aluminum alloy 373

Fig. 5 SEM photograph showing white layer and HAZ at case-2 Fig. 8 Microstructure of the wire EDMed surface at case-2
condition. condition.

Fig. 6 SEM photograph showing white layer and HAZ at case-3

Fig. 9 Microstructure of the wire EDMed surface at case-3
condition.
condition.

and Bleys, 2008). Absence of surface cracks in this investiga-

tion indicates that the observed residual stresses on the surface
can be considered as a maximum value for that component.
This is the reason for not conducting residual stress measure-
ments at various depth profiles. Even though surface cracks
were not observed in all the cases, but wider machined pocks,
a large number of micro voids and higher roughness values
were not advisable for better surface integrity.

3.5. Micro hardness measurement

A marginal increment in hardness was observed on the

EDMed surface when compared to as received material. The
Fig. 7 Microstructure of the wire EDMed surface at case-1
hardness and standard deviation values for the as received
condition.
material and the three cases considered are given in Table 5.
The reason for the increase in hardness may be due to
increased copper content in Al–Cu alloys; which was due to
highly thermally conductive (154 W/m-K), more volume of the diffusion of Cu from wire to machined surface. In addition,
material is thermally damaged, but the induced thermal gradi- the formation of intermetallic phases may have an effect, since
ents between white layer and bulk material may be not suffi- intermetallic phases are harder than their constituent elements
cient to generate the cracks. Formation of surface cracks (Boukhris et al., 2009).
relieves the stress levels on the surface and leads to a shift of Increased copper diffusion might increase the hardness but
peak tensile residual stress to various depth profiles (Kruth in contrast to that the values were in the decreasing order of
374 P. Srinivasa Rao et al.

case-2, case-3 and case-1. The AlCu intermetallic possesses

higher shear modulus (G) and lower bulk modulus (K) when
compared to AlCu3 phase. A low and high value of G/K ratio
is associated with ductility and brittleness respectively (Zhou
et al., 2009). Hence, higher values of G/K ratio indicate the
brittle nature of AlCu when compared to AlCu3. This
increased brittleness may have increased the hardness in
case-2. The generated residual stresses in wire EDM may be
another reason for varied hardness values as it is proved that
the residual stresses have an effect on the mechanical proper-
ties (Buchheita and Tandon, 2007). A decrease in hardness
with increased tensile residual stresses as obtained in this inves-
tigation is in-line with the previous literature (Chen et al.,
2006). The AlCu3 intermetallic phase was much more anisotro-
pic than other intermetallics (Zhou et al., 2009) results in being
directionally dependence of its properties which is not advis-
able, so its formation must be precluded. Fig. 10 Polarization curve for as received aluminum 2014 T6
alloy.
3.6. Pitting corrosion

Wire EDMed surface produces inferior corrosion resistance

when compared to surfaces machined by conventional meth-
ods (Ntasi et al., 2010). So there is a need to find the effect
of wire EDM parameters on corrosion resistance and much
research was also not observed in the past literature. Figs. 10
and 11 show the plot of potential versus current density, indi-
cating pitting corrosion behavior of aluminum 2014 T6 alloy
before and after undergoing the wire EDM process
respectively.
The polarization curve obtained for various cases shows the
spontaneous passive material known as protective passive film
present on the metal surface at open circuit potential or corro-
sion potential (Ecorr). During upward scanning breakdown
occurs and a stable pit starts growing at the pitting potential
(EP), where the current increases sharply from the passive cur-
rent level. The materials which exhibit higher values of the EP Fig. 11 Polarization curves for surfaces machined at case-1, 2
are generally considered as more resistant to pitting corrosion. and 3 conditions.
In the present investigation, a substantial improvement in
corrosion resistance was observed in all the cases when com-
pared to as received material and the values are given in Table 5 Micro hardness values of aluminum 2014 T6 alloy
Table 6. There were many possible reasons for improved and before and after undergone wire EDM process.
varied pitting corrosion resistance, in which observed inter-
Trial No Hardness of as Case-1 Case-2 Case-3
metallic particles, alloy composition, microstructure, surface
received material
condition and residual stresses on the wire EDMed surface
can be considered to have a significant effect. Pits in aluminum 1 156.4 157.4 161.4 158.2
2 154.9 153.9 158.8 162.9
alloys are typically associated with formation of intermetallic
3 155.7 166.1 166.5 161.5
phases in the common Al–Cu intermetallics (Kowal et al.,
4 156.1 156.9 162.2 159.2
1996). The phases which are electrochemically nobler than 5 155.3 155.5 163.7 163.6
the matrix play the role of cathodes while the matrix undergoes Average (HV) 155.68 158.0 162.52 161.08
anodic dissolution (Smialowska, 1999) and acts as preferred Standard 0.601664 4.74952 2.84727 2.32744
sites for pitting corrosion through galvanic coupling. Though deviation
phase analysis was not performed on as received material,
but the Ecorr value of 727.27 mV manifests the presence of
common intermetallic Al2Cu (h phase) on aluminum alloy
(Muller and Galvele, 1977), which leads to localized corrosion AlCu and AlCu3 phases were approximately 490 mV and
(Chen et al., 1996), such as pitting corrosion, this may be a rea- 260 mV respectively (De Wit, 2001) and these values were
son for obtaining lowest corrosion resistance. relatively high when compared to surrounding matrix material
The reasons for highest pitting potential observed in case-2 with a value of 727.27 mV (Theoretical Ecorr value of Al 2014
can be explained with the help of magnitudes of measured cor- T6 is 780 mV (Davis, 2000)). So, the above values indicate
rosion potentials for common Al–Cu intermetallics as pre- the cathodic nature of AlCu and AlCu3 with respect to the
sented by Mol et al. (2000). The corrosion potentials of matrix of aluminum alloy and the difference in potential was
Surface integrity of wire EDMed aluminum alloy 375

Table 6 Corrosion values of aluminum 2014 T6 alloy before and after undergone wire EDM process.
Trial No Aluminum 2014 T6 Case-1 Case-2 Case-3
alloy before machining
Ecorr (mV) 727.27 648.09 629.54 665.90
Ep (mV) 613.63 438.63 350.00 381.79

in the range of 235–290 mV and 465–520 mV respectively.  The elastic properties of intermetallics in terms of G/K ratio
Therefore, AlCu3 intermetallic was more cathodic than AlCu and residual stresses influenced the hardness value of wire
intermetallic with respect to aluminum matrix. This high dif- EDMed aluminum alloy. The observed hardness values
ference in corrosion potential gives the stronger galvanic cou- were slightly high when compared to as received material.
pling between aluminum matrix and AlCu3 when compared to The AlCu3 intermetallic was anisotropic in nature and its
AlCu intermetallic. So, the localized attack was expected to be formation must either be controlled or prevented.
more severe on the components having AlCu3 intermetallic  The AlCu3 intermetallic was much more cathodic when
than AlCu, this may be a reason for obtaining better corrosion compared to AlCu with respect to Aluminum. The galvanic
resistance in case-2 & case-3 when compared to case-1. Surface coupling created between the Al and AlCu was the main
roughness also had an effect on the corrosion resistance. In reason for obtaining higher corrosion resistance value. In
general, samples prepared with a rough surface finish are more addition, a low surface roughness of 1.61 lm and lower
susceptible to pitting and exhibits a lower pitting potentials residual stress value of 8.2 MPa were also the reasons for
(Laycock and Newman, 1997). Its effect on pitting corrosion obtained good corrosion resistance.
is related to the stabilization criteria because rougher surfaces
have more occluded sites, which can sustain the conditions From the results of the investigation a relationship can be
required for active dissolution at lower current densities and established between cutting speed and various responses in sur-
thus produces lower potentials. The highest surface roughness face integrity. With the increase in cutting speed the higher val-
obtained in case-1 may also be a reason for obtaining lowest ues of residual stresses, white layer, surface roughness, and
corrosion resistance, whereas in case-2 & 3 the variations in poor mechanical and chemical properties were observed which
roughness values may vary the corrosion resistance even is not advisable. So for better surface integrity the parameters
though the observed intermetallic phases were same. The high- should be set at lower levels of pulse on time and peak current
est residual stresses observed in case-1 was another reason for in combination with higher values of spark gap voltage.
obtaining the lowest pitting potential, as higher tensile residual
stresses adversely affect the pitting corrosion resistance (Boven Acknowledgement
et al., 2007). The negligible residual stress observed in case-2
may have acted favorably in obtaining higher corrosion resis- The authors would like to thank Sri. R.V.S. Subrahmanyam,
tance. So in order to have better resistance to corrosion hence Scientist-G, Naval Science and Technological Laboratory,
better surface integrity the surface has to be machined at low Visakhapatnam, India, for extending his support during
spark energies. experiments.

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