Parametric Study of Photochemical Machining of Aluminium Using Taguchi Approach

Abstract

This paper described a parametric optimization for photochemical machining process on aluminium work material. The study analysed the parametric effects of etching concentration, etching temperature, and etching time on the performance measures like, material removal rate, surface roughness and edge deviation of predefined boundary of area. Based on Taguchi L9 orthogonal array, the photochemical machining of aluminium was carried out using ferric chloride solution as etchant. Analysis of Variance showed the effects of different process parameters on performance measures. Overall evaluation criteria were formulated by desired weight percentage to material removal rate, surface roughness and edge deviation for achieving multi-objective condition. The optimum condition was found to be 400 g/L of etching concentration, 40 °C of etching temperature and 6 min of etching time. ANOVA of OEC showed that the etching temperature was the most significant factor for machining of aluminium workpiece.