Abstract
In the present age of adopting non-conventional finishing techniques, it is high time to apply these methods for micromachining of multiple holes in hardware components such as wires made of metals and composite materials to make them successful trends were hard to complete with finishing. Abrasive flow machining has the potential to use one of the advanced finishing techniques in the aerospace, medical and automotive fields. Current work focuses on optimizing the input parameters of micro-machining of multiple holes in a wire made of zinc and Al/SiCp composite materials with a high percentage of Silicon Carbide particles machined using abrasive flow jet with the multi-objective of minimizing surface roughness, R-a, and maximizing machining removal rate (MRR). Using input parameters such as pump pressure, abrasive mesh size and concentration, number of cycles and oil concentration percentage, the experiments were conducted according to a Taguchi L-27 orthogonal array. ANOVA predicted the relative importance of input parameters and their contribution level. In addition to this, mathematical models for establishing a relationship between input parameters and machining characteristics were also developed. The pump pressure was the highly influential factor affecting the R-a and MRR. The Box-Behnken design of response surface methodology is applied with a desirability function approach to determine the optimum set of parameters for minimizing R-a and maximizing the MRR. The advanced technique shows flexibility based on the product application could be tested and established.