Application of Taguchi method in optimization of process parameters of ODS tungsten heavy alloys

Abstract

In the present work, a design of experiment (DOE) technique using Taguchi method, has been applied to optimize the properties of ODS tungsten heavy alloys(WHAs). In this work Taguchi method involves nine experiments groups for four processing parameters (compaction pressure, sintering temperature, binding material type, and oxide type) with three levels was implemented. The signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were employed to obtain the optimal process parameter levels and to analyze the effect of these parameters on density, electrical conductivity, hardness and compressive strength values. The results showed that all the chosen factors have significant effects on all properties of ODS tungsten heavy alloys samples. The density, electrical conductivity and hardness increases with the increase in sintering temperature. The analysis of the verification experiments for the physical properties (density and Electrical conductivity) has shown that Taguchi parameter design can successfully verify the optimal parameters, where the difference between the predicted and the verified values of relative density and electrical conductivity is about 1.01% and 1.15% respectively.