Economical Machining Parameters for Milling Operations by Ants' Colony Algorithm

Machining parameters play a significant role for successful and efficient machining operations. Therefore, it is required to use the optimal parameters, especially for NC/CNC machines. Optimization of machining parameters can be defined as the appropriate selection of economical machining parameters in order to achieve maximum profit rate or minimum production cost or maximum production rate. The aim of this work is to maximize the profit rate by an optimization technique. Researchers have used many optimization techniques to solve the various engineering problems. This paper describes effectiveness and utilization of an optimization system, called Ants Colony Algorithm, for multi tool milling operations. The Ants Colony Algorithm based Optimization procedure evaluates the unit production cost, unit production time and maximum profit rate. The machining parameters such as optimal number of passes, cutting speed, feed, and depth of cut, are subjected to the constraints-maximum power, surface finish and cutting force. The Ants Colony System is a new kind of co-operative search procedure inspired by the foraging behavior of colonies of real ants. The problem has been solved by Ants Colony Algorithm with an example taken from the literature. The result is obtained through MATLAB software and it is compared with other methods.