Optimization of energy consumption response parameters for turning operation using Taguchi method

Abstract

The environmental performance of machining operations can significantly be improved by reducing energy consumption of machine tools. The present research work focuses on the optimization of foremost energy consumption response parameters viz. energy efficiency (EE), active energy consumed by the machine (AECM) and power factor (PF). The consideration of PF as an important energy consumption response parameter becomes essential as the electricity boards/suppliers put penalties on the manufacturing units, if the PF is low. The optimization of PF can also reduce the cost of installation of PF correction equipment besides reduction in penalties. An experimental analysis is carried out for the CNC rough turning of EN 353 alloy steel with multi-layer coated tungsten carbide insert. The effect of important input process variables viz. cutting speed, feed rate, depth of cut and nose radius along with their interactions has been studied on these energy consumption response parameters. The Taguchi's L27 orthogonal array is used for design of experiments and to optimize the response parameters using MINITAB 16 software. The results reveal that optimum turning conditions for the PF and EE are same and occur at 248.69 m/min. cutting speed, 0.3 mm/rev. feed rate, 1.8 mm depth of cut and 0.8 mm nose radius. The optimized control factors setting for AECM are 248.69 m/min. cutting speed, 0.3 mm/rev. feed rate, 1 mm depth of cut and nose radius 1.2 mm. Results of ANOVA, have shown that the depth of cut is the most dominant input process parameter for PF and EE, and feed rate be the dominating vital parameter for reduction of the AECM. The nose radius does not contribute too much for energy consumption response parameters. The interactions between most of input variables are also not significant for energy consumption response parameters. At optimum turning conditions for each significant energy consumption response parameter viz. EE, AECM and PF achieved in the present study, there is an improvement of 61.776%, 57.025% and 7.49%, respectively compared to turning conditions in common use for rough turning.