A study of Taguchi optimization method for identifying optimum surface roughness in CNC face milling of cobalt-based alloy (stellite 6)

The aim of this work is to develop a study of Taguchi optimization method for low surface roughness value in terms of cutting parameters when face milling of the cobalt-based alloy (stellite 6) material. The milling parameters evaluated are feed rate, cutting speed and depth of cut, a series of milling experiments are performed to measure the surface roughness data. The settings of face milling parameters were determined by using Taguchi experimental design method. Orthogonal arrays of Taguchi, the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) are employed to find the optimal levels and to analyze the effect of the milling parameters on surface roughness. Confirmation tests with the optimal levels of cutting parameters are carried out in order to illustrate the effectiveness of Taguchi optimization method. It is thus shown that the Taguchi method is very suitable to solve the surface quality problem occurring the face milling of stellite 6 material.