This chapter presents the manufacturing of high quality miniature spur
gears of brass by Wire Electric Discharge Machining (WEDM). Effects of four
WEDM parameters i.e. voltage, pulse-on time, pulse-off time and wire feed rate on
five responses namely profile error, pitch error, average roughness, maximum
roughness and material removal rate are studied. The experimental research was
accomplished in three stages namely pilot, main and confirmation experimentation.
The bracketed range of WEDM parameters by pilot experimentation were used in the
main experiments designed using Box-Behnken approach of response surface
methodology (RSM) and finally the confirmation experiments were conducted to
validate the optimum results predicted by desirability anaylsis. The miniature gears
manufactured by WEDM had defect-free microstructure, very thin recast layer, good
surface finish and having gear quality upto DIN standard 5 for micro-geometry
parameters (i.e. profile and pitch) which is much superior than the quality of the
miniature gears manufactured by other existing conventional processes.