Optimization of Wear of Electroless Ni-P-Cu Coating Using Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm

Abstract

This article aims to present an experimental investigation for optimum wear depth of electroless Ni-P-Cu coatings based on four process parameters using artificial bee colony algorithm. Experiments are carried out by utilizing the combination of three coating process parameters viz. nickel sulphate, sodium hypophosphite, copper sulphate and the fourth parameter is post deposition heat treatment temperature. To observe the variation of each parameter with the wear depth, the operating range of each parameter is divided into three equally spaced levels. The design of experiment is based on the Taguchi L 27 experimental design. The measurement of wear is carried out in terms of wear depth using DUCOM TR 25 multi-tribotester apparatus with block on roller arrangement. Here a second order regression equation is obtained for wear depth with the help of Minitab 16 software. The variation of wear depth with the variation of each coating process parameters is observed. The optimum values of each coating process parameters are obtained from the artificial bee colony analysis and the corresponding optimum value of wear depth is also obtained. The surface morphology and composition of coatings are also studied with the help of scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersed X-ray analysis.