66. Establishing EDM as a Method for Inducing Hydrophobicity on SS 304 Surfaces

Different methods have been adopted by researchers to induce hydrophobicity on metallic surfaces which are inherently hydrophilic in nature. In this work, the authors are analysing the effect of different operating parameters, such as pulse on-time, discharge current and gap voltage, on the measured contact angle (MCA) obtained on stainless steel 304 after processing with EDM. It is also attempted to correlate different surface roughness parameters measured on the surfaces with MCA values. MCA values were obtained in the range 101.9° to 127.45° which shows the hydrophobic nature of SS 304 after EDM. MCA showed to increase with an increase in both pulse on-time and discharge current. MCA showed a maximum value at a gap voltage value of 50 V. Surface parameters such as \(S_{sk}\), \(S_{mr1}\), \(S_{mr2}\), \(V_{vc} /V_{mc}\) and \(S_{al}\) showed good positive linear correlation with MCA. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first one introducing EDM as a method for wetting property change in metals.