Electrochemical Discharge Drilling of SiC Reinforced Polymer Matrix Composite Using Taguchi's Grey Relational Analysis

Micro-drilling of nonconductive fibrous materials is an imperative factor in advancement of manufacturing industries. Optimization for increased material removal rate (MRR) along with minimum overcut and taper in drilling of these materials becomes an essential feature for improved results. For that purpose, grey relational analysis (GRA) proves to be a superior optimization technique to forecast and decision-making in various areas of manufacturing sector. This paper emphasizes on optimizing process parameters of electrochemical discharge drilling for micro-drilling of a SiC reinforced polymer matrix composite using GRA. The experimentation was planned as per Taguchi methodology, and output quality characteristics were observed as overcut, taper and MRR. The results for micro-drilling were optimized by the multi-response optimization technique GRA to attain improved material removal rate (MRR) with least overcut and taper. The results revealed that optimization through grey relational analysis provides enhanced output quality characteristics.