OPTIMISATION OF MACHINING PARAMETERS FOR SURFACE ROUGHNESS, POWER CONSUMPTION AND OTHER RESPONSES DURING THE CNC LATHE DRY MACHINING OF EN24 ALLOY STEEL

Abstract

Design and analysis of optimisation protocols used for performance enhancement of 
machining based components manufacturing is currently an active area of machining 
science. This experimental investigation research deals with determining and optimising 
the effects of three input parameter metrics on the performance realisation of good surface 
quality output and energy consumption during the dry machining process of EN 24 steel 
material by turning on the CNC lathe. The input parameter metrics considered were cutting 
speed, depth of cut and feed rate. The study, employed Taguchi full factorial design 
approach in planning the experimental process and estimate the effects of the input metrics 
on the response; three phase digital energy meter to capture electrical power consumption 
data online; offline recorded surface roughness data and used Minitab 18 statistical 
software analysis of variance to assess the influence of cutting parameters on the response 
parameters, and the Signal to noise ratio main effects plot as the optimisation tool for the 
various response parameters. The paper aimed to determine the appropriate cutting 
parameter settings required on the lathe machine in order to produce EN 24 components of 
better surface quality at minimum energy expenditure. The experimental data analysis 
results established the optimum operating conditions at varied cutting parameter settings 
with respect to the different response parameters and the results were presented for the 
surface roughness, material removal rate and specific cutting energy use.