Manufacturing process optimization for wear property of fiber-reinforced polybutylene terephthalate composites with grey relational analysis

This paper studies the optimization of injection molding process parameters using the grey relational analysis method. Nine experimental runs based on the Taguchi method of orthogonal arrays were performed to determine the best factor level condition. The wear volume losses of fiber-reinforced polybutylene terephthalate in different sliding directions were selected to be the quality targets. Volume losses were obtained using an Schwingum Reibung Verschleiss (SRV) "ball-on-plane" wear tester. The factor levels were assessed according to two chosen wear volume losses. The degree of influence that the controllable process factors exert on the wear volume losses was studied by investigating the correlation between them. By analyzing the grey relational grade matrix, the most influential process factor and the most easily influenced wear property could be picked. Melt temperature was found to be the most influential factor in both wear volume losses of different sliding directions. The wear volume loss of sliding direction perpendicular to injection flow was more easily influenced by process factors than was the wear volume loss of the sliding direction parallel to the injection flow. The sequences of the importance to the wear volume loss in the controllable factors were slightly different for the two sliding directions, but the melt temperature was still the most important factor. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V All rights reserved.