Prof. Harshad D. Santoki
Dr. Ghanshyam D. Acharya
Dr. Shailee G. Acharya
Abstract
This paper presents an application of the Taguchi optimization technique in determining the optimum raw materials combination for producing green tiles of desired quality characteristics i.e. strength (MoR) and water absorption (%) required for further processing steps. Five main tile body raw materials – clay, dolomite, talc, calcite, and feldspar – were chosen as process parameters and, the performance parameters used for this study were the strength (M.O.R.) and water absorption of the resulting green tile body. An orthogonal array (OA), L27(3,5), and five controllable three level factors were adopted. Manufacturing facility setup was used to carry out experiments and explores the effect of the raw material combinations on the qualities of the final green tile body. Furthermore, the effects of the experimental factors on the selected performance parameters of the produced green tile body were investigated using the analysis of variance approach (ANOVA), thus optimizing the selected parameters. The experimental results indicate that it is possible to produce high performance green tiles by incorporating optimum raw materials combination. Especially, the Taguchi method provides a simple, systematic, and efficient methodology for optimizing raw materials combination
Keywords- Taguchi Analysis, Design of Experiments (DoE), ANOVA, Ceramic Tile Manufacturing.