Effect of Nano Powders (SiO ₂ – Graphite) Dielectric Mixture on Surface Integrity in Machining of Stainless Steel 304L

Abstract One of the applications of electrical discharge machining nowadays, mainly nano powder mix electrical discharge machining, is to produce high-quality surface integrity materials. To achieve good results, change the input process settings as needed. The current study investigates the effect of discharge current, pulse on time (P on ), pulse off time (P off ), powder concentration, and mixing ratio of SiO 2 – graphite nano powder on SR – surface roughness, EWR – electrode wear rate, and MRR – material removal rate during electrical discharge machining (EDM) of 304L stainless steel. A cylindrical copper electrode with a diameter of 16 mm and a length of 40 mm was used as a tool electrode in this novel machining method. The experiment used a MINITAB 18 half-factorial design with five components and five levels. A total of 24 tests (12 for conventional EDM and 12 for NPMEDM) were performed using various combinations of input elements. The findings revealed that adding silicon dioxide-graphite nanoparticles to an EDM kerosene dielectric significantly boosted the MRR while decreasing the EWR and SR. This study looks into modifying dielectrics with SiO 2 – graphite nano powder to improve machining performance. The performance of this newly invented nano powder-mixed electrical discharge machining (NPMEDM) technology is compared to traditional EDM. The average MRR increases from 0.1263 to 0.1324 g/min, EWR decreases from 0.0066 to 0.0052 g/min, and SR climbs from 5.381 to 5.063 µm.