Optimisation of multiperformance characteristics in electric discharge machining of Aluminium Matrix Composites (AMCs) using Taguchi DOE methodology

Abstract

This paper presents an investigation on the optimisation of process parameters for the Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) of 6061Al/Al2O3p/20p work specimens by employing the Taguchi Design of Experiment (DOE) methodology. One noise factor, aspect ratio (with two levels), and five control factors, viz. pulse current, pulse ON time, duty cycle, gap voltage and tool electrode lift time (three levels each), with an L18 (21 ? 35) fractional factorial design were selected for the present experiment to obtain the optimal settings of factors and study their effects on multiple performance characteristics, namely, Material Removal Rate (MRR), Tool Wear Rate (TWR) and Surface Roughness (SR). The experimental results were analysed by using Signal-to-Noise (S/N) ratios and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). This analysis recognised the factors on the basis of their significant effect on the performance measures. The derived optimal levels were then used to conduct validation tests to confirm the effectiveness of this approach.