Design of Experiments for Milling Al2024-T4 under Optimum Lubricant Use Using Taguchi Method

Performance of the machining and the efficiency of milling operation depend on several process variables among which hardness of work material is of great significant. The use of cutting fluids is an important part of a machining process system. Without cutting fluid, tools have only a short life, which makes the machining process costly. In this study, experimentation was carried out to investigate the effect of work hardness on end milling process. Workpiece material hardness is used as a noise factor. Input parameters used are spindle speed, feed; depth of cut and tool diameter. The experiments performed under wet and minimum Quantity lubrication and results of both compared. further for getting optimal lubricant conditions the experiments performed for various levels of flow rates of minimum quantity lubrication to get the best optimal setting. Taguchi method is used for single objective optimization. The S/N is used by Taguchi approach to analyze experimental data. Output parameters are surface roughness, material removal rate, cutting force and tool wear. Design of Experiment (DOE) with Taguchi L27 Orthogonal Array (OA) has been explored to produce 27 specimens on Al2024 aluminium by end milling operation at three different levels of hardness of material. The present study can be used for implementing the Minimum Quantity Lubrication Technique in place of conventional Wet Lubrication. The experiments performed under wet and minimum quantity lubrication condition and results compared. Further For optimal lubricant condition the experiments performed at various flow rate of Minimum Quantity Lubrication and “best” optimal setting is identified.