OPTIMIZATION OF CYLINDRICAL GRINDING PROCESS PARAMETERS FOR AISI 5120 STEEL USING TAGUCHI METHOD

The demand for closely controlling both dimensional and geometrical accuracy of engineering components made up of difficult-to-shape material is increasing continuously. The wider and newer application requirements are very demanding. To attain the closer tolerances with required surface finish, the most acceptable abrasive machining process is grinding process. Cylindrical grinding is one of the important metal cutting processes used extensively in the finishing operations. Metal removal rate and surface finish are the important output responses in the production with respect to quantity and quality respectively. The main objective of this paper is to arrive at the optimal grinding conditions that will minimize surface roughness and maximize metal removal rate when grinding AISI 5120 steel. Empirical models were developed using design of experiments by Taguchi L9 Orthogonal Array and the adequacy of the developed model is tested with ANOVA. The developed model can be used by the different manufacturing firms to select appropriate combination of machining parameters to achieve an optimal metal removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (Ra). The input parameters considered are: wheel speed, work speed, number of passes and depth of cut and the responses are metal removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (Ra). The results were further validated by conducting confirmation experiments.