EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS AND PROCEDURE

Taguchi approach was used for designing the experiment, L25 orthogonal
array was used which composed of five levels and 25 rows, which means that 25
experiments were carried out. Design of experiments was selected based on a four
welding parameters with five levels each. The selected welding input parameters
for this study are wire feed rate (WFR), voltage (V), travel speed (TS) and torch
angle (TA). The welding input parameters and their levels are presented in Table
I.
Table 1
Welding parameters and their levels
Parameters

Units

Wire Feed Rate (WFR)

Voltage (V)
Travel Speed (TS)

Torch Angle(TA)

Mm/min

volts

19

Cm/min
0

levels
3

10

11

21

23

25

27

0.3

0.36

0.42

0.48

0.54

50

60

70

80

90

The welding trails were conducted based on the L25 orthogonal array as
shown in Table III. Argon as a shielding gas at a constant flow rate of 18 lpm and
stick out distance is 15 mm as maintained. Weld profiles were obtained by
sectioning and polishing with suitable abrasive and diamond paste. Weld samples
were etched with 10% oxalic acid, an etchant to state and increase the contrast of
the fusion zone with the base metal. The weld bead profiles were measured using

optical microscope. The measured bead profiles are depth of penetration (DOP),
bead width (BW) and reinforcement(R) were presented in Table III.

Table 2
Experimental results using l25 orthogonal array

Sl.No

WFR

TS

TA

DOP

BW

mm

mm

mm

2.814

8.034

2.356

3.843

8.623

2.485

3.876

8.931

2.674

3.334

8.527

2.745

3.487

8.234

2.789

4.315

8.723

2.945

3.893

8.965

2.864

3.756

9.167

2.654

3.032

9.583

2.479

10

4.067

8.869

2.987

11

3.912

8.783

2.843

12

2.889

9.267

2.489

13

3.445

8.935

2.681

14

4.889

8.347

2.712

15

4.553

8.587

2.567

16

3.564

8.743

2.145

17

4.078

8.845

2.647

18

4.378

8.384

2.741

19

4.583

8.457

2.856

20

2.932

9.987

2.146

21

3.348

9.267

2.216

22

4.392

8.932

2.347

23

3.641

9.124

2.045

24

3.994

9.256

2.249

25

3.826

9.016

2.198

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SOLUTION METHODOLOGY

A. Grey Relational Analysis
Step 1: The S/N ratios are calculated for all the responses depending upon the type
of quality characteristics. The main objective of this work is maximization of depth
of penetration and minimization of bead width, reinforcement. According to this
objective the responses are considered in this study larger the better type and
smaller the better types are selected. The values of computed S/N ratios for each
quality characteristic from Table III using one of the (1) and (2) are presented in
Table IV.
Step 2: Normalize the S/N ratio values using one of the (3) and (4). The results are
given in the Table IV.
Sl.No

S/N Ratios

Normalized values

DOP

BW

DOP

BW

8.9865

-18.0986

-7.4435

0.0000

0.0000

0.3737

11.6934

-18.7132

-7.9065

0.5642

0.3251

0.5144

11.7677

-19.0180

-8.5432

0.5797

0.4864

0.7078

10.4593

-18.6159

-8.7708

0.3070

0.2737

0.7770

10.8490

-18.3122

-8.9090

0.3882

0.1130

0.8190

12.6996

-18.8133

-9.3817

0.7739

0.3781

0.9626

11.8057

-19.0510

-9.1395

0.5876

0.5039

0.8890

11.4945

-19.2445

-8.4780

0.5227

0.6063

0.6880

9.6346

-19.6300

-7.8855

0.1351

0.8102

0.5080

10

12.1855

-18.9575

-9.5047

0.6667

0.4544

1.0000

11

11.8480

-18.8729

-9.0755

0.5964

0.4096

0.8696

12

9.2150

-19.3388

-7.9205

0.0476

0.6561

0.5186

13

10.7438

-19.0219

-8.5659

0.3663

0.4885

0.7147

14

13.7844

-18.4306

-8.6658

1.0000

0.1756

0.7451

15

13.1660

-18.6768

-8.1885

0.8711

0.3059

0.6000

16

11.0388

-18.8332

-6.6285

0.4277

0.3886

0.1260

17

12.2089

-18.9340

-8.4551

0.6716

0.4420

0.6810

18

12.8255

-18.4690

-8.7582

0.8001

0.1960

0.7732

19

13.2230

-18.5443

-9.1152

0.4714

0.2358

0.8816

20

9.3433

-19.9887

-6.6326

0.0744

1.0000

0.1272

21

10.4957

-19.3388

-6.9114

0.3146

0.6561

0.2120

22

12.8532

-19.0190

-7.4103

0.8059

0.4869

0.3636

23

11.2244

-19.2037

-6.2139

0.4664

0.5847

0.0000

24

12.0282

-19.3285

-7.0398

0.6340

0.6507

0.2510

25

11.6549

-19.1003

-6.8406

0.5562

0.5300

0.1904

Step 3: Perform the grey relational analysis. From the data in Table 4, calculate the
grey relational co-efficient for the normalized S/N ratio values by using (5). The
values for is taken as for depth of penetration (0.5), bead width (0.25) and
reinforcement (0.25) and were considered in (4). The results are given in Table V.
Step 4: Next, the grey relational grade can be computed by using (6). Finally, the
grades are considered for optimizing the multi response parameter design problem.

Step 5: Using the composite desirability value, ANOVA is formulated for

identifying the significant factors. The results of ANOVA are given in Table X.
From ANOVA, it is clear that Torch angle (34.9895%) influences more on welding
followed by wire feed rate (22.8593%), travel speed (21.0985%) and voltage

Voltage

0.0189

0.0047

3.9692

3.8379

%
Contribu
tion

0.0134 11.2136 3.8379

F-table

F-Cal

0.0534

squares

Mean

Wire
feed rate

Factor

Squares

ofDegree
freedom

Sum of

(14.0232%).

27.6792
9.7974

Travel
speed

0.0451

0.0113

3.8379

23.3601

Torch
angle

0.0661

0.0165 13.8662 3.8379

34.2267

Error

0.0095

0.0012

Total

0.1930 24

9.4638

4.9367

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Confirmation Tests
Based on the preliminary trails, the initial parameters were chosen and the
bead on plate welding trail was made and subsequently the bead profiles were
measured. A confirmation experiment trail was carried out to validate the results
and it has been compared with the initial condition.