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Abstract Process energy consumption and environmental impact have been considered as important performance indicators for the sustainable electrical discharge machining (EDM) process. This paper presents a sustainable manufacturing technique known as magnetic field-assisted EDM (MF-EDM) to enhance the machine characteristics for the purpose of reducing the energy consumption and environmental hazards of the conventional EDM machining Ti6Al4V. Firstly, the principles of energy consumption, machining noise impact, and MF-EDM are respectively described. Thereafter, a set of experiments is carried out to investigate the effects of the main process parameters on the electrode wear rate (E W R), energy consumption (S E C), and environmental impacts (including carbon emission and machining noise) extensively, using the Taguchi method. The results indicate that the pulse on time (ranging from 100 to 200 μs) and magnetic field intensity (ranging from 0.05 to 0.10 T) are the two most significant factors affecting the MF-EDM sustainable manufacturing performance. Furthermore, the optimal process parameters were obtained by optimizing the MF-EDM process economically and environmentally using the modified non-dominated neighbor immune algorithm (M-NNIA) method. Compared to the minimum outputs of the experimental results, the optimal solutions of the E W R , S E C , and machining noise were significantly decreased, by 18.30%, 61.43%, and 20.95%, respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded from the above research that the proposed hybrid MF-EDM technique offers significant advantages and potential for applications in the sustainable manufacturing field. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • A sustainable technique, magnetic field assisted EDM, is proposed to reduce energy consumption and environmental hazards. • Electrode wear rate, energy consumption, machining noise of MF-EDM processing Ti6Al4V were completely investigated. • Optimal parameter combinations were obtained through optimizing MF-EDM process economically and environmentally by M-NNIA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SiC particulate reinforced Al-based metal matrix composites with high volume fractions (HVF − SiC p / Al) is widely applied in many engineering fields due to combining outstanding properties of both metal and ceramic materials. It's a tough problem to process HVF − SiC p / Al with superior machining performance and minor environmental effect. Thus, in this paper, magnetic field assisted electrical discharge machining (MF-EDM) of HVF − SiC p / Al is proposed to improve the sustainable machining performance including productivity and aerosol emissions which is most harmful to operators' health. Based on Taguchi method, a set of experiments are settled to investigate materials removal rate (MRR), electrode wear rate (EWR), and aerosol emissions under MF-EDM process of 45% and 65% SiC p / Al. It shows that pulse current is the major factor, and magnetic field assisted technology significantly develops the surface integrity whereas it just slightly contributes to improve MRR, EWR, and aerosol emissions when the intensity of magnetic is in the range of 0.1T–0.2T. Additionally, an optimization algorithm combing Quantum-behaved Particle Swarm Optimization with Gaussian distributed local attractor (GAQPSO) and Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN) is employed to provide optimal machining parameters for economic and environmental MF-EDM process of HVF − SiC p / Al. Compared to the average experimental data, for 45% SiC p / Al , the average optimal solutions of EWR, and aerosol emissions were decreased by about 10% and 15% whereas MRR was increased by about 6.6%; for 65% SiC p / Al , the average optimal solutions of EWR, and aerosol emissions were decreased by about 5.7% and 10% whereas MRR was increased about by 5.5%. It presents an effective work for EDM process of HVF − SiC p / Al with high sustainable performance. • Magnetic field assisted EDM of HVF-SiC p /Al is proposed to improve productivity and aerosol emissions. • Material removal rate, electrode wear rate, aerosol emissions, and surface integrity of MF-EDM were completely investigated. • The composition of emitted aerosols from MF-EDM of HVF-SiC p /Al is analyzed. • MF-EDM process of HVF-SiC p /Al is optimized economically and environmentally by BPNN-GAQPSO method. • Optimal parameter combinations for MF-EDM process of 45% and 65% SiC p /Al are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]