Rapid manufacturing techniques permit tools and dies to be fabricated in short duration of time with complex geometry. The major contribution of the present research was to fabricate copper complex geometry electric discharge machining electrode by using amalgamation of three-dimensional printing along with pressureless loose sintering. Response surface methodology was employed to study the sintering parameters’ (sintering temperature, heating rate and soaking time) effect on electric discharge machining electrode important characteristics such as density, shrinkage and electrical conductivity. Analysis of variance was used to investigate the significant contribution of the parameters on the responses. Density and electrical conductivity of fabricated electric discharge machining electrode were revealed to increase with respect to rise in soaking time and sintering temperature. The interaction between the heating rate and sintering temperature for density and electrical conductivity responses signified the less effect of heating rate at high temperatures. Further, multi-objective optimization was used to maximize density and electrical conductivity and to minimize volumetric shrinkage. Different shapes of electric discharge machining electrodes were fabricated at optimized parameters. In addition, the fabricated electrodes were tested on electric discharge machining of D2 steel for 5 mm depth. The dimensional analysis was carried out between the computer aided design (CAD) model, fabricated electric discharge machining electrode and the obtained cavity by electric discharge machining process. The results depicted high efficacy of the process to fabricate complex geometry electric discharge machining electrodes.

中文翻译：

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复杂几何形状放电加工电极快速制造工艺优化

快速制造技术允许在短时间内制造具有复杂几何形状的工具和模具。本研究的主要贡献是利用三维打印结合无压松散烧结制备铜复杂几何形状的电火花加工电极。采用响应面法研究了烧结参数（烧结温度、加热速率和均热时间）对放电加工电极的密度、收缩率和电导率等重要特性的影响。方差分析用于研究参数对响应的显着贡献。表明制造的放电加工电极的密度和电导率随着均热时间和烧结温度的增加而增加。加热速率和烧结温度之间的相互作用对于密度和电导率响应表明在高温下加热速率的影响较小。此外，使用多目标优化来最大化密度和电导率并最小化体积收缩。以优化的参数制造不同形状的放电加工电极。此外，制造的电极在 D2 钢的 5 毫米深度电火花加工上进行了测试。尺寸分析是在计算机辅助设计（CAD）模型之间进行的，制作放电加工电极和通过放电加工工艺获得的腔体。结果表明该工艺在制造复杂几何形状的放电加工电极方面具有很高的效率。