A study on the development of aluminum alloys using the mechanical surface improvement method using the Taguchi method

Abstract

The surface quality of the manufactured parts is an important factor affecting the functional properties such as corrosion resistance and fatigue strength of the part. For this reason, this study aims to develop surface roughness of Al 7075-T6 material which is generally used in the aviation and aerospace industry. In order to enhance the surface quality of the parts, the ball burnishing apparatus was designed and experiments were carried out at different parameters (force, feed rate, and medium). The design of the experiments was carried out using the Taguchi method, and the L9 orthogonal array was chosen. Also, the contributions of the parameters on surface roughness have been calculated with an analysis of variance (ANOVA). Consequently, the optimum surface roughness value was reached with parameters of the force 200 N, mineral oil, and feed rate of 0.1 mm/min. The most important parameters affecting the surface quality are found to be the burnishing force, feed rate, and medium, respectively.