Application of Taguchi Method for Optimization AWJ Machining of AISI 316 Stainless Steel
Abstract—A non-conventional material removal process, Abrasive Water jet (AWJ) machining is also an ideal manufacturing process for very hard materials. This study aims to optimize the parameters involved in AWJ machining of 316 stainless steel material such as abrasive material grain size, nozzle speed, standoff distance, abrasive mass flow rate and pumping system pressure. The analysis of the impact of parameters involved in this study was conducted using the L27 Taguchi orthogonal array, S/N ratio and ANOVA. Five controllable factors were used to obtain the minimum surface roughness and each parameter was assigned with three different values in order to define the optimal factor and level combination. Results showed that the surface roughness is in strong correlation with abrasive material grain size. The findings of this study suggest that the study design used is much more effective than the full factorial design in terms of the number of experiments conducted.