Title: Identification of the significant process parameters by Taguchi methodology during electrochemical grinding of Al2O3/Al – interpenetrating phase composite

Authors: G.K. Bose; T.K. Jana; S. Mitra

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Haldia Institute of Technology, Haldia, ICARE Complex, Purba Medinipur, Pin – 721 657, West Bengal, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Haldia Institute of Technology, Haldia, ICARE Complex, Purba Medinipur, Pin – 721 657, West Bengal, India. ' Department of Production Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, Pin – 700 032, West Bengal, India

Abstract: The present work deals with identification of process variables that have significant consequences during electrochemical grinding of alumina – aluminium (Al2O3/Al) interpenetrating phase composites. The two important attributes – better surface finish (Ra) along with reasonable material removal rate (MRR) are considered as objectives that are to be satisfied simultaneously by a set of process variables namely electrolyte concentration, voltage, depth of cut and flow rate keeping other parameters unaltered. The Taguchi L9 orthogonal array is selected for design of experiments and the analysis is carried out following signal to noise ratio. The global objective is established by assigning appropriate weights to the two responses and transforming the same into a single multi response function following additive model. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analysis of means (ANOM) are carried out to establish the factors that significantly influence the responses. It is found that voltage and electrolyte concentration play very dominating role in this regard.

Keywords: electrochemical grinding; ECG; Al2O3/Al IPC; Taguchi methods; L9 orthogonal array; S/N ratio; analysis of variance; ANOVA; analysis of means; ANOM; material removal rate; MRR; surface roughness; process variables; interpenetrating phase composites; alumina; aluminium; surface quality.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCMSSE.2011.042821

International Journal of Computational Materials Science and Surface Engineering, 2011 Vol.4 No.3, pp.232 - 246

Received: 17 May 2010
Accepted: 21 Mar 2011

Published online: 11 Jan 2015 *

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