Comparison of a full factorial experiment to fractional and Taguchi designs in a lathe dry turning operation

Abstract This paper presents a comparison of three different experimental designs aimed at studying the effects of cutting parameters variations on surface finish. The results revealed that the effects obtained by analyzing both fractional and Taguchi designs (16 trials each) were comparable to the main effects and tow-level interactions obtained by the full factorial design (288 trials). Thus, we conclude that screening designs appear to be reliable and more economical since they permit to reduce by a factor 18 the amount of time and effort required to conduct the experimental design without losing valuable information.