EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION AND TAGUCHI OPTIMIZATION OF TURNING

PROCESS PARAMETERS FOR GLASS FIBRE REINFORCED PLASTICS (GFRP)

1 2
S.Jasper , S.Chandramohan
1
(UG Scholar, Department of Mechanical, Sri vidya College of Engineering & Technology, virudhunagar)
2(Associate professor, Department of Mechanical, Sri vidya College of Engineering & Technology, virudhunagar)
1 2
joeljasper7@gmail.com , schandramohan1971@gmail.com
Abstract:
The present work is focused on the influence of cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut on the delamination
damage and surface roughness on Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic composite material (GFRP) during turning. Taguchi design
method will be employed to investigate the machining characteristics of GFRP. In this work, experiments has to be carried out
as per the Taguchi experimental design and an L9 orthogonal array will be used to study the influence of various
combinations of process parameters on surface quality. Finally the analysis of means (ANOM) will be performed to determine
the optimal levels of the parameters and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) has to be employed to identify the level of
importance of the machining parameters.

Key words: GFRP Composite material, Taguchi design, Surface roughness, ANOVA

Introduction: material to control tolerances. However the users of

In recent years, Fiber reinforced plastics
(FRPs) are continuously replacing traditional
engineering materials because of their superior
advantage over other engineering materials. The
advantages include high strength to weight ratio, high
fracture toughness, and excellent corrosion and
thermal resistance. The glass fiber reinforced plastic
(GFRP) composites are being extensively used in
various fields like Aerospace, Automobile, Chemical
industries, Off shore power plants, Refinery, Oil and
Gas, Pulp and paper, Waste and waste water etc.,
The application filed of FRP composites,
expands the opportunity of machining such as cutting
off, drilling, milling, turning etc, and has increased
for its fabrication. However, the users of FRP have
faced difficulties to machine it, because knowledge
and experience acquired for conventional materials
cannot be applied to such new materials, of which
machinability is completely different from that of
conventional materials.
The increased use of FRP composites in
recent years has led to an increased demand for
machining. The finish machining is more concern
than roughing, because FRPs produced almost net-
shape which often requires the removal of excess
FRP composites are facing difficulties to machine it,
because of delamination, fiber pull out, short tool life,
matrix deboning, burning and formation of powder
like chips. However, the weakness of composite
material lies in their susceptibility to machining
damage when subjected to improper machining
conditions. To minimize the damage in machining, it
is important to monitor process variables such as
cutting speed, feed, depth of cut etc.,
Glass fibers:
Over 95% of the fibers used in reinforced
plastics are glass fibers, as they are inexpensive, easy
to manufacture and possess high strength and
stiffness with respect to the plastics, with which they
are reinforced. Their low densities, resistance to
chemicals, insulation capacity are the other bonus
characteristics of the glass fiber. Glass fibers are
available in the form of mats, tapes, cloths,
continuous and chopped filaments, roving and yarns.
Addition of chemicals to silica sand while making
glass yields different types of glasses. The main types
are E-glass (also called “fiberglass”) and S-glass. The
E in E-glass stands for electrical as it was designed
for electrical applications as an insulator. However, it
is used for many other purposes now such as
decorations and structural applications. The S in S-
glass stands for higher content of silica. It retains its
strength at high temperature as compared to E-glass
and has higher fatigue strength. It is used mainly for
aerospace applications. Other type of fibers available
are C-glass (C stands for corrosion) used in chemical
environments such as storage tanks, R-glass used in
structural application such as constructions. D-glass
(D stands for dielectric) used for applications
requiring low dielectric constants such as A-glass (A
stands for appearance) used to improve surface
appearance.
Figure 1.1 Typical GFRP Specimen
RESIN:
The resin is tends to be more resistant over
time to degradation than polyester resin, and is more
flexible. It uses the same hardener as polyester resin
(at the same mix ratio) and the cost is approximately
the same. Epoxy resin is almost totally transparent
when cured. In the aerospace industry, epoxy is used
as a structural matrix material or as structural glue. A
loose bundle of fibers wouldn't be of much use. Also,
though fibers are strong, they can be brittle. The
matrix can absorb energy by deforming under stress.
This is to say, the matrix adds toughness to the
composite. And finally, while fibers have good tensile
strength they usually have awful compression
strength. The matrix gives compression strength to
the composite. This resin is often billed as being fuel
resistant, but will melt in contact with gasoline.
Typically, most common composite materials,
including fiberglass, carbon fiber, and Kevlar, include
at least two parts, the substrate and the resin. Its
weaknesses are that it is UV sensitive and can tend to
degrade over time, and thus generally is also
coated to help preserve it. It is often used in the
making of surfboards and for marine applications.
Isophthalic Polyester Resin:
Polyester resins are the most widely used
resin systems, particularly in the marine industry. By
far the majority of dinghies, yachts and workboats
built in composites make use of this resin system.
Polyester resins such as these are of the
'unsaturated' type. Unsaturated polyester resin is a
thermo set, capable of being cured from a liquid or
solid state when subject to the right conditions. It is
usual to refer to unsaturated polyester resins as
'polyester resins', or simply as 'polyesters'. There is a
whole range of polyesters made from different acids,
glycols and monomers, all having varying properties.
EXPERIMRNTAL DESIGN:
Taguchi Introduction:
Experimental design methods are too
complex and not easy to use. Furthermore, a large
number of experiments have to be carried out when
the number of the process parameters increases, to
solve this problem, the Taguchi method uses a
special design of orthogonal arrays to study the
entire parameter space with a small number of
experiments only. The experimental results are then
transformed into a signal– to – noise (S/N) ratio to
measure the quality characteristics deviating from
the desired values. Usually, there are three
categories of quality characteristics in the analysis
of the S/N ratio, i.e., the–lower–better, the–higher–
better, and the–nominal–better. The S/N ratio for
each level of process parameter is compared based
on the S/N analysis. Regardless of the category of
the quality characteristic, a greater S/N ratio
corresponds to better quality characteristics.
Therefore, the optimal level of the process
parameters is the level with the greatest S/N r a t i o
Furthermore, statistically significant with the S/N
and ANOVA analyses, the optimal combination of
the process parameters can be predicted. Finally, a
confirmation experiment is conducted to verify the
optimal process parameters obtained from the
parameter design.
There are 3Signal-to-Noise ratios of common
interest for optimization of Static Problems. The effectively compete with grinding which is an
formulae for signal to noise ratio are designed so expensive process for complex surface generation.
that an experimenter can always select the largest The extreme hardness of CBN which is susceptible to
factor level setting to optimize the quality fracture and chipping when machining under higher
characteristic of an experiment. Therefore a method depth of cut conditions. The price of a CBN tool is
of calculating the Signal-To-Noise ratio we had gone about 10–20 times that of a carbide tool. Ceramic
for quality characteristic. They are tools are used for both roughing and finishing
operations while CBN tools are mainly used for
1. Smaller-The-Better
finish turning to minimize cost. The need to use CBN
2. Larger-The-Better
tools for machining GFRP composites can be
3. Nominal is Best
justified by the quest for tool materials with high
temperature properties for high speed machining.
Response Table for S/N Ratios Smaller is better
This will ensure higher production rates of machined
Level Speed Feed Doc
components. The good thermal stability of CBN tool
1 -36.31 -38.86 -33.84 impairs chemical reaction with work piece materials
at higher speed conditions. Cubic boron nitride is the
2 -34.87 -32.95 -35.26
standard choice for machining alloy and tool steels
3 -31.25 -30.62 -33.34 with a hardness of 50 Ra or higher. Typical cutting
Delta 5.07 8.24 1.92 speed ranges from 30 - 310 m/min.

Rank 2 1 3

CUTTING TOOL MATERIAL USED FOR

MACHINING GFRP COMPOSITIES

When machining GFRP composites, it is

clearly seen that fibers are cut across and along their
lay direction, leaving deformed, projecting, and
partially disclosed fibers on the machined surface.
Conventional machining of fiber reinforced Figure 1.2 Machining of GFRP Specimen
composites is difficult due to diverse fiber and matrix
properties, fiber orientation, inhomogeneous nature
DESIGN OF ORTHOGONAL ARRAY
of the material, and presence of high fiber volume
fraction (volume of the fiber over total volume) of First Taguchi Orthogonal array is designed
hard abrasive fibers in the matrix. in minitab-16 to calculate S/N ratio and means.
Carbide Tools: An Orthogonal Array L9 Formation
These are the most important tool materials Trial
today because of their high hot hardness and wear Designation Speed Feed DOC
resistance. These materials are produced by powder No.
metallurgy methods, sintering grains of tungsten 1 A1B1C1 1000 0.03 0.5
carbide (WC) in a cobalt (Co) matrix (it provides
toughness). There may be other carbides in the 2 A1B2C2 1000 0.05 0.7
mixture, such as Titanium carbide (TiC) and/or 3 A1B3C3 1000 0.07 1.0
tantalum carbide (TaC) in addition to WC. In spite of
4 A2B1C2 1500 0.03 0.7
more traditional tool materials, cemented carbides are
available as inserts produced by powder metallurgy 5 A2B2C3 1500 0.05 1.0
process.
6 A2B3C1 1500 0.07 0.5
Cubic Boron Nitride (CBN) tools:
They are the hardest tool materials 7 A3B1C3 2000 0.03 1.0
available after diamond and are used mainly for 8 A3B2C1 2000 0.05 0.5
machining hardened steels. Their use has been
restricted to finish machining operations in order to 9 A3B3C2 2000 0.07 0.7
 Surface Roughness Test:

Figure 1.3 L9 GFRP work piece

Experimental Data:

CONCLUSION AND RESULT

In this study, the Taguchi technique and

ANOVA were used to obtain optimal Turning
parameters in the Turning of GFRP under dry
conditions. The experimental results were evaluated
using Taguchi technique. The following conclusion
can be drawn.

Optimal Control Factor

Main Effects Plot for SN ratios 1. Surface Roughness- A1 (Speed -1000) B3 (Feed -
Data Means

-30
speed feed 0.07) C2 (DOC-0.7)
-32

-34

-36
2. Machining Timing- A2 (Speed-1500) B1 (Feed
SN ratios

-38 0.03) C3 (DOC 1)

1000 1500 2000 0.03 0.05 0.07
of

-32 DOC
3. Material Removal Rate- A3 (Speed-2000) B2
Mean

-30

-34 (Feed 0.05) C1 (DOC 0.5)

-36

-38

0.5 0.7 1.0

Percentage of Contribution of Process Parameter
Signal-to-noise: Smaller is better

1. Surface Roughness- speed 28%

Fig 1.4 Main Effects Plot for SN ratios
2. Machining Timing- Feed 65.5%

3. Material Removal Rate-46%

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