Optimisation of Processing Condition Using Taguchi Method on Strength of HDPE-Natural Fibres Micro Composite

Abstract

Injection molding usually uses to produce part from plastic. Other than it is cheap, it also can produce part in large quantity. In this paper, Taguchi Methods was used to define the optimization of process parameter for an injection molding machine to produce a dumbbell product from High-density Polyethylene (HDPE) + natural fiber (Kenaf). Taguchi Methods with L9-34 approaches will be used in this work. Four different formulation of material will be tested to find the best formulation and its parameter setting. Here, an orthogonal array (OA), signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and analysis of variance (ANOVA) are employed to analyze the effect of injection molding parameter. The significant of formulation and parameter setting from injection molding through the hardness and the strength value of the specimen. Furthermore, test will be conducted through hardness test and tensile test. Changes in the parameter setting will give different hardness and tensile strength value. The optimum parameter setting was set base on the S/N ratio. For each formulation, it has their optimum parameter setting for hardness and for tensile strength. The optimum parameter setting was predicting their S/N ratio using Minitab software.