MULTI RESPONSE CHARACTERISTICS OF PROCESS PARAMETERS DURING END MILLING OF GFRP USING GREY-BASED TAGUCHI METHOD

This paper deals with optimization of surface roughness and delamination damage on GFRP material during end milling using grey - based taguchi method. Three parameters namely spindle speed, feed rate and depth of cut were identified and ranges of the parameters for the present investigation were determined from preliminary experiments. Taguchi method based on L9 orthogonal array was selected and experiments were conducted as per experimental layout plan. The experiments were carried out on a CNC vertical machining center to perform 10m m slots on GFRP work piece of 300mmX50mmX25mm size by K10 carbide, four flute end milling cutter. Surface roughness and delamination damage were measured on each slot with the aid of form Talysurf 50 and tool maker's micro scope. An optimal combination of process parameters were obtained via grey based taguchi method. From the results of ANOVA, it is concluded that cutting speed and depth of cut are the most significant factors affecting the surface roughness and delamination damage factor and their contribution in an order of 26.84% and 40.44% respectively. A confirmatory experiment shows that 5.052pm for surface roughness and 1.682 delamination damage factor to validate the used approach after conducting with optimal setting of process parameters.