The Potential of Water-In-Oil Emulsion of Canola Oil as  Dielectric Fluid for EDM Process

Norazkifni Faizura Dzulkifli; Azuddin Mamat; Imtiaz Ahmed Choudhury

Authors

Norazkifni Faizura Dzulkifli Centre for Production Design & Manufacturing, Department of Mechanical, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Azuddin Mamat Centre for Production Design & Manufacturing, Department of Mechanical, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Imtiaz Ahmed Choudhury Centre for Production Design & Manufacturing, Department of Mechanical, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Keywords:

Vegetable oil, dielectric fluid, EDM, W/O emulsion, thermal properties, viscosity

Abstract

Currently, the industry generally uses electrical discharge machining (EDM) with kerosene facing problems in terms of processing efficiency, perilous environment, and low quality of the machined surface. In this paper, water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion dielectric is introduced as an alternative for this drawback. Kerosene has low properties especially thermal conductivity, viscosity and, higher heat capacity. Vegetable oil such as canola oil can be selected as an alternative dielectric fluid. This work has measured the properties of canola oil including thermal conductivity, heat capacity and viscosity for possible use as a dielectric fluid. The result shows that the emulsion of canola oil has the best combination at 35wt% of Tween20 with heat applied.