Quality Improvement of Surfaces Machined by Wire Electrical Discharge Process through Sand Blasting

Because of unsuitable surface quality resulted from wire electrical discharge machininig (WEDM), this method is not used for manufacturing of accurate parts, such as blades of gas turbine engines. Therefore, a post treatment is needed after WEDM. In this study, the application of sand blasting as a post treatment is investigated by design of experiment (DOE) technique. In this method, pressure, duration of the process, and the type of particles used in sand blasting process as input variables, as well as roughness and thickness of removed layer as response variables are considered. After performing the experiments and measuring the responses, the effects of inputs on response variables are investigated and the the optimal amount of inputs are obtained. The results show that sand blasting under specific condition can remove the recast layer with suitable roughness and hardness.