The Effect of Process Parameters on Material Removal Rate and Dimensional Variation of Channel Width in Micro-milling of Aluminium Alloy 6063 T6

Abstract

Micro milling is the process of manufacturing 3D complex structures with high accuracy, low cost and good surface finish. It has a wider scope in variety of applications such as micro fluidics for transportation of biological materials, micro heat exchangers for micro electromechanical systems (MEMS), etc.In this paper micro milling process is used under dry condition to produce micro-channels on Aluminium alloy 6063 T6 using Tungsten Carbide end mill cutter of 400 µm diameter. The effect of process parameters such as spindle speed, feed rate and depth of cut on material removal rate (MRR) and dimensional variation of channel width (Wvar) is investigated. Design of experiment is done by Taguchi L16 orthogonal array. ANOVA is carried out to analyze the experimental results. The optimum conditions obtained from Taguchi method for optimizing MRR during micro milling of Aluminium alloy 6063 T6 are feed rate of 4.5 mm/min, depth of cut of 0.064 mm and spindle speed of 2500 rpm. Depth of cut is the most significant factor of about 63.10 % followed by feed rate of 33.30 % and the spindle speed is least significant factor about 1.16 % influencing MRR. Similarly the optimum conditions obtained from Taguchi method for optimizing Wvar are spindle speed of 2000 rpm, depth of cut of 0.048 mm and feed rate of 1.8 mm/min. Spindle speed is the majorly contributing of about 53.05 % in obtaining optimal Wvar,depth of cut of 26.13 % and feed rate has very less contribution of 3.51 %.