Shape-memory alloys such as nitinol are gaining popularity as advanced materials in the aerospace, medical, and automobile sectors. However, nitinol is a difficult-to-cut material because of its versatile specific properties such as the shape-memory effect, superelasticity, high specific strength, high wear and corrosion resistance, and severe strain hardening. Anunconventional machining process like wire-electrical-discharge-machining (WEDM) can be effectively and efficiently used for the machining of such alloys,although the WEDM-induced surface integrity of nitinol hassignificant impact on material performance. Therefore, this work investigated the surface integrity of WEDM-processed nitinol samples using digital microscopy imaging, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. Three-dimensional analysis of the surfaces was carried out in two different patterns (along the periphery and the vertical plane of the machined surface) andrevealed that surface roughness was maximalat the point where the surface was largely exposed to the WEDM dielectric fluid. To attain the desired surface roughness, appropriate discharge energy is required that,in turn, requires the appropriate parameter settings of the WEDM process. Different SEM image analyses showed a reduction in microcracks and pores,and in globule-density size at optimized parameters. EDX analysis revealed the absence of wire material on the machined surface.
Keywords: SEM; WEDM; shape-memory alloy; superelasticnitinol; surface integrity; surface roughness.