A Taguchi Approach in Investigating the Effects of Process Parameters in Drilling of Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic Composite

Abstract

Glass fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP) composite has found an important place in the industries replacing many metals and alloys. The joints formed are found to be the weakest portions of the assembled GFRP parts. Conventional drilling is the most widely adapted manufacturing process for an efficient assembly. Moreover, drilling of glass fibre reinforced plastics is difficult to carry out due to the anisotropic, non-homogeneous structure and high abrasiveness of the glass fibre and the complex geometry of the drill. For these reasons, the damage gets induced to the hole/workpiece and the cutting tool. In this study, Taguchi approach is employed to analyse the drilling process. An L25 orthogonal array, signal to noise S/N ratio and analysis of variance (ANOVA) are used to identify the effects of process input parameters on the output factors. The process input parameters are drill diameter, cutting speed and feed rate. The output factors/responses are the thrust force, torque, power, temperature, tool life, surface roughness, deviation from dimensional parameters of the holes, peel-up and push-out delaminations. In every set of experiment, an exhaustive work has been carried out till each drill bit reached its tool life. Optimal process parameters are available from the S/N ratio plots whereas ANOVA has identified the significant input factors and their percentage contribution on the responses.