5th International & 26th All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR 2014) December

12th14th, 2014, IIT

Guwahati, Assam, India

Experimental Investigation and Optimization of Milling Parameters in the

Machining of NEMA G -11 GFRP Composite Material using PCD Tool
Hari Vasudevan1, Ramesh Rajguru2*, Naresh Deshpande3Sandip Mane4
1

Principal, D.J. Sanghvi College of Engineering, Mumbai, India,

harivasudevan@iitb.ac.in

2*

Faculty, Department of Mechanical Engineering, D.J. Sanghvi College of Engineering,

Mumbai, India,ramesh.rajguru9@gmail.com

3,4

Faculty, Department of Production Engineering, D.J. Sanghvi College of Engineering,

Mumbai, India, ncdeshpande72@yahoo.co.in
Abstract

GFRP/Epoxy composite NEMA G-11 possesses excellent physical, mechanical and electrical properties at both
room temperature & elevated temperatures and finds wide applications, such as insulation in aerospace and defense
systems. The material withstands temperatures in excess of 300C and is considered a premier material for use as
Class F insulation in electrical power generation and transmission equipments.Milling is one of the most practical
machining processes for removing excess material to produce high quality surface. However, milling of composite
materials is a rather complex task owing to its heterogeneity and poor surface finish, which includes fibre pullout,
matrix delamination, sub-surface damage and matrix polymer interface failure. In this study, an attempt has been
made to optimize milling parameters with multiple performance characteristics, based on the Grey Relational
Analysis coupled with Taguchi method. The milling experiments were carried out on a vertical HAAS TM-2 CNC
Milling machine. The experiments were conducted according to L18 (OA). The four cutting parameters selected for
this investigation are milling strategy, spindle speed, feed rate and depth of cut. Response table of grey relational
grade for four process parameters is used for the analysis to produce the best output; the optimal combination of the
parameters.From the response table of the average GRG, it is found that the largest value of the GRG is for the up
milling, spindle speed is of 1500 rpm, feed rate of 200 mm/min and depth of cut 0.2 mm. Milling strategies and feed
rate have the most dominant roles in influencing the surface roughness.
Keywords:Milling, Surface roughness, Machining force, Grey relational analysis; Taguchi methodology.

1. Introduction
Machining aspects in the case ofglass fiber
reinforced plastics(GFRP) differ incomparison to that of
metals. Machining of most of the homogeneous and
ductile metals is characterized by shearing & plastic
deformation and the formation of a continuous chip,
whereas machining of GFRPs, is characterized by
uncontrolled intermittent fracture. Oscillating cutting
forces are typical, because of the intermittent fracture of
the fibers (Jamal, 2009). The quality of the machined
surface depends upon the type of fiber and matrix
materials used; type of weave of the fabric etc. Some of
the typical problems faced during the machining of
GFRP are fibers pull out, matrix debonding, burning,
short tool life, powder type chips, high cutting forces
and poor surface finish. Cutting forces have a direct
effect on power consumption and tool wear. They are
oscillating and periodic in nature. The oscillations are

generated due to repeated running of cutting tool into

fibers and matrix phases. This results in strong
variations of magnitudes of cutting forces. In order to
achieve good machinability, it is desirable to have
minimum values of cutting force.
Azmi, Lin &Bhattachayyra(2013) investigated the
end milling of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP)
composites using uncoated tungsten carbide tool.
Machinability data were evaluated in the form of
Taylors equation in order to predict the tool
performance, while machining this composite
material.Panneerselvam et al. (2012) studied the effect
of machining parameters on end milling of GFRP
composites in order to minimize surface delamination,
machining forces, cutting torque and surface roughness.
The four cutting parameters selected for this study were
tool condition, number of flutes, cutting speed and feed
rate. These parameters were optimized using grey

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Experimental Investigation and Optimization of Milling Parameters in the Machining of NEMA G -11 GFRP Composite Material using PCD
Tool

relational grade.Balamugundan et al. (2012) used

desirability function analysis to optimize surface
roughness and delamination during milling of
GFRP/Epoxy composites.Palanikumar (2008) discussed
the use of fuzzy logic for modeling machining
parameters in machining glass fiber reinforced plastics
by poly-crystalline diamond tool. The cutting parameters
selected were cutting speed, feed, and depth of cut. The
output responses considered for the investigation were
surface roughness parameters. The model predicted
values and measured values were found fairly close to
each other. Erkan et al. (2012) predicted the damage
factor in end milling of glass fibre reinforced plastic
composites using artificial neural network model.
The extant literature survey reveals that woven fabric
based NEMA G-11 GFRP composites have not been
widely explored for their machining characteristics,
despite their wide applications.

2. Methodology
The methodology used for this study is as shown
below in Fig.1.

can only be revealed if more than two levels of the

parameters are considered (Byrne & Taguchi, 1987).
Thus, each selected parameter is analyzed at three
levels.In the present study, three factor at three levels
and one factor at two levels were selected,so thatany
mix level design available for this combination couldbe
considered and hence L18 OA was selected. The factors
are assigned to column no, 1, 2,3 and 6 respectively. The
unassigned columns are treated as error (See table
3).Each trial was repeated onceand also the trials were
carried out in random order. The selected cutting
parameters and their assigned values of levels are listed
in Table 1.
Table 1 Factor and levels (L-1,L-2,L-3) for milling
process.
Symbol
A
B
C
D

Cutting
parameter
Type of
milling
Spindle Speed
(rpm)
Feed Rate
(mm/min)
Depth of cut
(mm)

L-1

L-2

L-3

Down

Up

1000

1500

2000

100

150

200

0.2

0.4

0.6

The edge milling experiments were carried out on a

vertical HAAS (USA), Model TM-2CNC machine
centre, with following technical specifications: Axes
travel 1016 x 406 x 406 mm(x,y,z), Spindle speed4000
rpm direct speed and Horse power 7.5 KW. The set up
used for milling is as shown in Fig.2.

Figure 1 Methodology used for the study.

3. Experimentation
The experiments were planned using Taguchis
design of experiments (DOE). The nonlinear
relationship among the process parameters, if it exists,

Figure 2: Experimental set up.

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5th International & 26th All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR 2014) December 12th14th, 2014, IIT
Guwahati, Assam, India

The work material selected for this experiment is

NEMA G11 GFRP/Epoxy composite. The E-glass
reinforcement is of woven fabric form, having following
specifications. Type of weave: plain, weight: 1805
gm/m2 and of 0.18mm thickness. The work specimens
are rectangular in shape, 150 mm long, 50 mm width
and 8mm thickness.This material is an excellent
insulating material for transformer and inductive
appliances. It has good dimensional stability and very
good mechanical (Table 2) and dielectric properties at
elevated temperature.
Table 2 Material Properties
Key characteristics of NEMA G11 GFRP/Epoxy
Specific gravity
1.91g/cc
Rockwell hardness
110 M scale
Tensile strength
282.5 Mpa
Compressive strength
344.5Mpa
Shear strength
144.7Mpa
Tool wear caused by the reinforcing fibres is an
important factor, when costing the machining process.
Diamond, or more usually polycrystalline diamond
(PCD) tools are the best choice for fibre reinforced
composites machining, in terms of tool wear, resulting
in longer tool life and generating surfaces of better
characteristics. The cutting tool used is polycrystalline
diamond (PCD) end mill with two flutes and 10mm
diameter.Components of machining forces (See Fig.3)
in the workpiece such as Fx, Fy and Fz. were measured
with Kistler piezoelectric dynamometer of type-5233A
with built in, charge amplifier up to 10KN and a least
count of 1mN. Data acquisition was accomplished by
connecting this dynamometer to computer and using
KistlerDynoware type- 2825A software.

sampling length of 0.8mm and evaluation length of

4mm.Data acquisition wasaccomplished by connecting
this profiler to computer and using SESURF software.

Figure 4Sample roughness profile;

4. Grey relational analysis

In grey relational analysis, the data pre-processing is the
first step performed to normalize the random grey data
with different measurement units to transform them to
dimensionless parameters. Thus, data pre-processing
converts the original sequences to a set of comparable
sequences. Different methods are employed to preprocess grey data depending upon the quality
characteristics of the original data(Deng J.L. 1989).
The original reference sequence and pre-processed data
()
(comparability sequence) are represented by
 (),

and
 (), = 1,2, . . ;  = 1,2, .  respectively,
where, m is the number of experiments and n is the total
number of observations of data.
If the original data has the quality characteristic as
smaller the better, then original data is pre-processed
as smaller the best:

 () =



 ()
 ()



 ()  
 ()

(1)

Next step is the calculation of deviation sequence,

 () from the reference sequence of pre-processes
data
 () and the comparability sequence
 () .The
grey relational coefficientis calculated from the
deviation sequence using the following relation:

 (),
 () =

  + 

 () + 

(2)

Figure 3 Sample graph of cutting forces

The surface roughness measurements were done
using Taylor Hobson Talysurf-5 as shown in Fig.4The
roughness profile assessment was conducted according
to ISO standard, which employs a Gaussian filter, a

Where, ()is the deviation sequence of the reference

sequence
 ()and comparability sequence
 ()
 () = |
 ()
 ()|
(3)

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Experimental Investigation and Optimization of Milling Parameters in the Machining of NEMA G -11 GFRP Composite Material using PCD
Tool

Table 3 Experimental plan with resultant machining force and surface roughness response
Expt
Run
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

Factors
A
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2

B
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
3
3
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
3
3

C
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3

Measured parameters
F(N)
Ra (m)
137.60
0.825
168.03
1.344
109.07
0.758
142.53
0.69
99.84
1.4655
72.73
1.4135
146.13
1.1375
100.84
1.452
127.65
0.7565
167.46
0.796
175.38
1.022
50.41
0.686
49.90
0.56
71.34
0.6985
38.80
0.957
141.57
0.791
80.69
1.0425
125.16
0.4835

D
1
2
3
2
3
1
3
1
2
2
3
1
1
2
3
3
1
2

Table 4Calculated GRC and GRG

Expt.
Run
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

Normalization
F(N)
Ra ( m)
0.2766
0.0538
0.4855
0.2405
0.553
0.7515
0.2141
0.5457
0.3494
0.0579
0
0.9149
0.9187
0.7617
1
0.2475
0.6932
0.3676

0.6522
0.1237
0.7204
0.7897
0
0.0529
0.334
0.0137
0.7219
0.6817
0.4516
0.8202
0.922
0.781
0.5178
0.6868
0.4307
1

Deviation
Sequence
F(N)
0.7234
0.9462
0.5145
0.7595
0.4470
0.2485
0.7859
0.4543
0.6506
0.9421
1.0000
0.0851
0.0813
0.2383
0.0000
0.7525
0.3068
0.6324

Ra ( m)
0.3478
0.8763
0.2796
0.2103
1
0.9471
0.666
0.9862
0.2781
0.3183
0.5484
0.1798
0.078
0.219
0.4822
0.3132
0.5693
0

Grey relational coefficient & GRG

F(N)
Ra (m)
GRG
0.4087
0.3457
0.4929
0.3970
0.5280
0.6680
0.3888
0.5239
0.4346
0.3467
0.3333
0.8546
0.8601
0.6772
1.0000
0.3992
0.6197
0.4415

0.5898
0.3633
0.6414
0.7039
0.3333
0.3455
0.4288
0.3364
0.6426
0.6110
0.4769
0.7355
0.8651
0.6954
0.5091
0.6149
0.4676
1.0000

0.4992
0.3545
0.5671
0.5505
0.4307
0.5068
0.4088
0.4302
0.5386
0.4789
0.4051
0.7950
0.8626
0.6863
0.7545
0.5070
0.5437
0.7208

Rank
12
18
6
7
14
11
16
15
9
13
17
2
1
5
3
10
8
4

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5th International & 26th All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR 2014) December 12th14th, 2014, IIT
Guwahati, Assam, India

 is the distinguishing coefficient  [0,1] The

distinguishing coefficient ( )value is chosen to be 0.5.
The grey relational grade (
 ,
 ) represents the
degree of correlation between the reference and
comparability sequences. Additionally,grey relational
coefficients are averaged to obtain the grey relational
grade. Grey relational coefficients and grey relational
grade are calculated and listed in the table 4.

5. Result and Analysis

From Table 4, it is found that for experiment no 13,
machining parameter setting is the optimal parameter
setting
for
attaining
multiple
performances,
simultaneously among 18 experiments. However, the
relative importance among the achieving parameters for
the multiple performance characteristics still needed to
be analyzed so that the optimal combinations of the
milling parameter levels could be determined more
clearly.
For analyzing the results, mean analysis was used
and is presented as response table (See table 5).
Table 5 Response table for means

A
B
C
D

Level 1
0.4763
0.5166
0.5512
0.6062

Level 2
0.6393
0.6319
0.4751
0.5549

Level 3
0.5248
0.6471
0.5122

MaxMin
0.1631
0.1152
0.1721
0.0940

Rank
2
3
1
4

The procedure for the response table is to group

the GRCs by factor levels and then average them. The
optimal level of the milling parameters is the level with
the greatest GRG value. Based on the results obtained
from Fig.5, the optimal parameters achieved are milling
type at level 2, spindle speed at level 2, feed rate at level
3and depth of cut at level 1 for achieving better surface
roughness and resultant machining force. The optimal
solution A2B2C3D1 found in this study is only the near
optimal solution.

Figure 5 Response graph for GRG

6. Conclusion
In this study, GRA has been developed towards
optimizing the resultant machining force andsurface
roughness in edge milling of NEMA G11glass fiber
reinforced epoxy composites. The basic idea of GRA is
to find a GRG, which can be used for the optimization
conversion from a multi objective case to a single
objective case. GRG is also used to estimate the
parameter effects on the overall performance response.
By this way, a multi-response optimization problem has
been converted to an equivalent single objective
optimization problem, which has been further solved by
Taguchi philosophy.
Experiments revealed that from the surface roughness
point of view, the most appropriate optimal parameter in
case of edge milling are up milling, spindle speed at
1500 rpm, feed rate at 200 mm/min and depth of cut at
0.2mm.
Milling strategy and feed rate have the most dominant
roles in influencing the surface roughness.
Also, a minimum value of surface roughness has been
obtained for the up milling area.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Dr.
BabasahebAmbedkar Technology University (BATU),
Lonere, Maharashtra and Institute for Design of
Elecrtical
Measuring
Instruments
(IDEMI),Chunabhatti,Sion, Mumbai for the permission
and support given during the experimental work.

References
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Senthilkumar, 2012 Multi characteristics optimization
during milling of friction stir processed GFRP
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3. Deng, J.L., 1989 Introduction to Grey system.
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4. Ik B. &Kentli A., 2009, Multicriteria optimization
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Procedia Engineering 38 , 3962-3968.Palanikumar K.
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