Optimization the Parameters of Hotwire Cutting Process to Enhance the Properties of Polystyrene Foam

Abstract

Hot –Wire  cutting process is one of the important method to produce different shapes and prototypes of  Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) and Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) material . The study and analysis of Hot-Wire cutting parameters play an important role to enhance the quality and accuracy of the process and products . The effect on the surface has been investigated by using the experimental test which designed according to the Taguchi orthogonal array (OA). In this study, four parameters,(temperature of wire(A) (°C), diameter of wire (B) (mm) , velocity of cutting (C) (mm/min), and density of foam (D)(gm/cm3) , with five levels for each parameter have been used. A full process would require (45 =625) experiments .The design of experiments(DOE)n performed L25(45 ) orthogonal array , which suggested by Taguchi to reduce the high required number of experiments to 25 effected tests.  In the present study, the signal to noise (s/n) ratio have been performed for analysis the results , by statistical software(MINITAB17) to establish the  optimum condition for a process and estimate the contributions and response under optimum condition. In addition , the analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been performed to identify the significant parameters affected on accuracy and quality.

Keywords: hotwire cutting, Polystyrene, foam cutting, Taguchi, ANOVA.

DOI: 10.7176/ISDE/10-5-01

Publication date:June 30^th 2019