Effect of Cutting Parameters on Cutting Force and Surface Roughness of Aluminium Components using Face Milling Process - a Taguchi Approach

Abstract

Aluminum is used excessively in the modern world and the uses of the metals are extremely diverse due to its many unusual combinations of properties. They have been widely used in industries, especially aerospace industries due to their attractive mechanical and chemical properties. However, machining of Aluminium results in good surface finish at the expense of tooling cost. This study investigates the optimum parameters that could produce significant good surface finish and optimum cutting force thereby reducing tooling cost. It employs the Taguchi design method to optimize the surface roughness quality and cutting force in a Computer Numerical Control (CNC). The milling parameters evaluated are cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut. An L9(3 4 ) orthogonal array, signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and analysis of variance (ANOVA) are employed to analyze the effect of these cutting parameters. The analysis of the result indicates that the optimal combination for low resultant cutting force and good surface finish are high cutting speed, low feed rate and low depth of cut. The study shows that the Taguchi method is suitable to solve the machining problems with minimum number of trials as compared with a full factorial design.