Experimental Investigations to Study the Impact of Machining Parameters on Mild Steel Using Plasma Arc Cutting

Plasma arc cutting is extensively used to cut steels and aluminum. Plasma arc cutting was invented in 1950‟s and since then, it became commercial on its advent into the industry. The purpose of this research is to ascertain the influence of various parameters on plasma arc cutting process while machining mild steel. The experiments were conducted using Taguchi L16 orthogonal array with current, voltage, speed, plate thickness as the control parameters and surface roughness, kerf as the response variables. The optimal parameter setting for the machining process is determined by conducting a Grey-Taguchi method. Orthogonal array L16 (4 power 4) of Taguchi, Signal to Noise ratio, the Analysis of Variance(ANOVA) are employed to find the optimal levels and to analyze the optimum levels and to analyze the impact of current, voltage, speed, plate thickness on kerf and surface roughness.