Optimization the Parameters of Hotwire Cutting Process to Enhance the Properties of Polystyrene Foam

Abstract

Hot -Wire cutting process is one of the important method to produce different shapes and prototypes of Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) and Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) material . The study and analysis of Hot-Wire cutting parameters play an important role to enhance the quality and accuracy of the process and products . The effect on the surface has been investigated by using the experimental test which designed according to the Taguchi orthogonal array (OA). In this study, four parameters,(temperature of wire(A) (°C), diameter of wire (B) (mm) , velocity of cutting (C) (mm/min), and density of foam (D)(gm/cm3) , with five levels for each parameter have been used. A full process would require (45 =625) experiments .The design of experiments(DOE)n performed L25(45 ) orthogonal array , which suggested by Taguchi to reduce the high required number of experiments to 25 effected tests. In the present study, the signal to noise (s/n) ratio have been performed for analysis the results , by statistical software(MINITAB17) to establish the optimum condition for a process and estimate the contributions and response under optimum condition. In addition , the analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been performed to identify the significant parameters affected on accuracy and quality.