Process parameters optimization on porthole-die hot intrusion of aluminium alloy tubes using Taguchi method

During the hot extrusion process of aluminum alloy 6061, the process parameters significantly affect the mechanical properties of extruded products. For better extruded components, these process parameters need to be optimized. An experimental investigation and analysis has been carried out to optimize the billet temperature, mandrel length, convex die angle and tooling temperature on porthole-die hot extruded Aluminium alloy 6061 tubes under extrusion ratio of 24.03. During the experiments the above parameters were varied and Taguchi’s optimization approach was applied to obtain an optimal setting of parameters. From the experimental results and further analysis, it is concluded that under 95% confidence interval the minimum extrusion load could be obtained with the billet temperature 420°C, mandrel length 8mm, convex die angle 105° i.e.(A3, B2, C3). And the highest tensile strength was obtained with billet temperature 410°C, mandrel length 11mm, tooling temperature 400°C i.e. (A2, B3, D1). However, the most significant process parameters responsible for minimum extrusion load and maximum tensile strength with their percent contribution were convex die angle 97.83% and mandrel length 81.16% respectively.