Purpose Rapid tooling (RT) technique using rapid prototyping (RP) process has been looked upon as an approach which reduces time and cost of production. This study aims to produce electrode for electrical discharge machining (EDM) from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) material using the fused deposition modeling (FDM) process of RP. The electrode is coated with copper to a depth of 1 mm by using electroplating to make it conductive. This electrode is termed as RP electrode. The performance of RP electrode having square shape is compared with that of solid electrode of copper having identical size. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the work piece material is chosen to be titanium Grade-V alloy (Ti-Al6-V4). The input parameters on the EDM machine such as discharge current, pulse on time and voltage are studied, and experiments are designed using the Taguchi method. Findings The results pertaining to the material removal rate (MRR), electrode wear rate (EWR) and surface roughness (Ra) are reported. It is found that the performance of a coated RP electrode is equally satisfactory when compared with that of a solid electrode. Originality/value This paper reports the machining performance of a square-shaped ABS electrode coated with copper. This technique, particularly when the electrode is of intricate shape, saves on cost and time of production of electrode to be used for EDM.

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Various researche rs have established the fact that solar drying has an edge over conve ntional open air sun drying. Especially, for de veloping country like India, where a ve ry good solar radiation is available, solar drying is the economical and viable alte rnative. The dryers may be classified as direct, indirect or mixed mode based on exposure of the product to solar radiation. Further, depending on the mode of air flow, dryers are termed as natural convection or forced convection drye rs. The work re ported here is carried out on a solar cabinet dryer, which is of direct type that uses natural circulation of air through it. The main aim of the study is to investigate the e ffect of provision of reflector and the chimney structure attached to the plain dryer. The prototype dryer is fabricated at the institute and is tested for high moisture content commodity. The performance of the drye r with reflector compare d with the one without reflector is brought out. Also, the exclusive effect of pro vision of the chimney structure attached to the plain dryer, whe ther or not the reflector is provided, is investigated. It is pointed out that provision of the chimney and reflector is quite desirable and a good improvement in the drying rate is obtained.

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