Experimental Studies on Mechanical Properties of Epoxy Granite for Machine Tool Structure using Design of Experiments Shanmugam C*, Thyla P R**, Kumar N Mahindra***, Rabik S John****, Krishna R Ragav****, Kumar S Vivin**** *Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India **Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India ***Research Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India ****UG Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India Online published on 23 March, 2017. Abstract Machine tool structures are required to possess excellent stability in terms of vibrations, static and dynamic stiffness's. It ensures that the component machined adheres to the most minimal tolerance levels. These requirements can be satisfied by optimizing the structural design and the material of construction. Choosing to improve on the material aspect, this study scouts for new composite materials to replace the conventional materials such as cast iron for improved performance of the machine tool. Granite, a natural stone exhibits excellent compressive strength and damping properties which are most suitable for a machine tool structure. A preliminary study of compatible resins proved that epoxy granite is the most promising alternative. Commercially available, Jhansi Red granite with a compressive strength of 246 MPa was procured, crushed and sieved to three size ranges from 0.150 to10 mm respectively as per ASTM standard. Samples were fabricated for three tests of compression, flexure and damping according to ASTM standards for a Taguchi 2 factor 3 level array of L 27. The factors being Granite: Epoxy ratio of 80:20, 90:10 and aggregate size mix with small, medium and coarse size proportions of 50:50:0, 50:0:50, 25:25:50 respectively. Further, testing is done according to the standards to arrive at the optimum composition of the composite. An ANOVA study entailed that granite to epoxy ratio as the significant parameter for strengths of compression and flexure, while the damping property is majorly impacted by the aggregate size ratio of the granite particles. A Taguchi analysis of the Means and Signal to Noise ratios provided the optimized composition of 80:20(granite: epoxy) ratio and 50% to 50% by weight of small and coarse granite aggregates with a compressive strength of 89 MPa, flexural strength of 46 MPa and damping ratio of 0.061. Top Keywords Machine tool, epoxy granite, design of experiments, logarithmic decrement, damping ratio. Top |