Influence of process parameters on cutting force and torque during drilling of glass-fiber polyester reinforced composites

This research outlines the Taguchi optimization methodology, which is applied to optimize cutting parameters in drilling of glass fiber reinforced composite (GFRC) material. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to study the effect of process parameters on machining process. This procedure eliminates the need for repeated experiments, time and conserves the material by the conventional procedure. The drilling parameters and specimen parameters evaluated are speed, feed rate, drill size and specimen thickness. A series of experiments are conducted using TRIAC VMC CNC machining center to relate the cutting parameters and material parameters on the cutting thrust and torque. The measured results were collected and analyzed with the help of the commercial software package MINITABI4. An orthogonal array, signal-to-noise ratio are employed to analyze the influence of these parameters on cutting force and torque during drilling. The method could be useful in predicting thrust and torque parameters as a function of cutting parameters and specimen parameters. The main objective is to find the important factors and combination of factors influence the machining process to achieve low cutting low cutting thrust and torque. From the analysis of the Taguchi method indicates that among the all-significant parameters, speed and drill size are more significant influence on cutting thrust than the specimen thickness and the feed rate. Study of response table indicates that the specimen thickness, and drill size are the significant parameters of torque. From the interaction among process parameters, thickness and drill size together is more dominant factor than any other combination for the torque characteristic. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.