A STUDY OF INFLUENCE OF ELECTROLYTE COMPOSITION ON ECH OF BEVEL GEARS USING MIXTURE D-OPTIMAL DESIGN

This paper discusses the experimental investigation to find out the optimal electrolyte composition in improving the surface quality of the gear teeth profile during surfacing finishing of bevel gears by the electrochemical honing process. In this study, AISI 1040 was used as the workpiece material, mixtures of sodium chloride and sodium nitrate in different ratios were used as the input parameter, and the percentage improvement in the surface roughness and material removal rate of the process were used as measures of process performance. The experimental runs were designed according to the Mixture D-Optimal design. The analysis of the experimental outcome was carried out and 80% NaCl + 20% NaNO3 was found to be theoptimal electrolyte composition to conduct the confirmation experiments. The finding of the study establishes the process for precision finishing of bevel gears.