Robust design optimisation of constituent mix and WEDM electrical parameters of AA6063/SiC composites

This paper addresses robust design and development of aluminium-based composite materials with ceramic silicon carbide reinforcement with minimum sensitivity subjected to uncontrollable material factor constituent mix of the composite and wire electric discharge machining (WEDM) electrical machine setting parameters. The robust design reduces the variation in machinability performance of composite caused variations due to the unforeseen input parameters. In manufacturing sectors, the variation in performance is a major problem during the development of material for a process or product. The popular Taguchi parametric design approach is implemented in this work, to identify the best optimum parameter setting towards the single characteristic optimisation of machinability performance measures like surface roughness, material removal rate and cutting width, by machining AA6063/SiC composites with different constituent mix through different levels of Electronica Sprintcut WEDM electrical machine setting parameters like pulse on time, pulse off time and peak current. Copyright © 2021 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.