Using uniform design and regression methodology of turning parameters study of nickel alloy

The nickel alloy has good mechanical strength and corrosion resistance at high temperature; it is extensively used in aerospace and biomedical and energy industries, as well as alloy designs of different chemical compositions to achieve different mechanical properties. However, for high mechanical strength, low thermal conductivity, and surface hardening property, the nickel alloy has worse cutting tool life and machining efficiency than general materials. Therefore, how to select the optimum machining parameters will influence the workpiece quality, cost, and machining time. This research will be using a new experimental design methodology to the cutting parameter planning for nickel-based alloy cutting test, and used the uniform design methodology to cutting test to reduce the number of experiments. Three independent variable parameters are set up, including cutting speed, feed rate, and cutting depth, and four dependent variable parameters are set up, including cutting tool wear, surface roughness, machining time, and cutting force. A nickel alloy turning parameter model is built by using regression analysis to further predict the I/O relationship among various combinations of variables. The errors between actual values and prediction values are validated. When the cutting tool wear (VB) is 2.72~6.18%, the surface roughness (Ra) is 4.10~7.72%, the machining time (T) is 3.75~8.82%, and the cutting force (N) is 1.54~7.42%; the errors of various dependent variables are approximately less than 10%, so a high precision estimation model is obtained through a few experiments of uniform design method.