Analysis of Hardness by Parametric Optimization of Gravity Die Casting for A-356 Aluminium Alloy Using Taguchi Technique

Introduction

When Japanese manufacturers were struggling to survive with very limited resources after World War II, it was Dr. Genichi Taguchi who revolutionized the manufacturing process in Japan through cost savings by introducing a new method, known as Taguchi Method. His ideas have been adopted by successful manufacturers around the globe because of their results in creating superior production processes at much lower costs.

Taguchi methods are statistical methods developed by Genichi Taguchi to improve the quality of manufactured goods and more recently also applied to engineering (Rosa et al., 2009), biotechnology (Rao et al., 2008; Rao et al., 2004), marketing and advertising (Selden, 1997). Professional statisticians have welcomed the goals and improvements brought about by Taguchi methods, particularly by Taguchi's development of designs for studying variation.

There is a broad consensus in academia and industry that reducing variation is an important area in quality improvement (Gremyr et al., 2003; Thornton et al., 1999; Taguchi et al., 2005). “The enemy of mass production is variability. Success in reducing variability will invariably simplify processes, reduce scrap, and lower costs” (Box, G. & S. Bisgaard, 1988).

Though the many researchers have worked on gravity die casting taking different input parameters for analyzing hardness but it has not been found any paper analyzing hardness for A-356 aluminium alloy. Chemical composition of A-356 aluminium alloy is shown in Table 1.