Study on Fabricated Toolpost Shaft Efficiency for Cold Cutting Machine

The study discussed on the fabrication of Cold Cutting Machine (CCM) toolpost shaft and the optimization of the fabricated toolpost shaft efficiency. CCM has been used in oil and gas industry for cutting on-site, thus it has to be mobile and spark free. The CCM toolpost shaft is functioning as the holder for the cutting tool and it is adjustable as the cutting process takes place. Thus the study is to re-design, fabricate and testing the new toolpost shaft for its cutting efficiency. The existing toolpost shaft was made as a reference for the fabrication of the new one. The shaft was fabricated in two new different sizes of cutting clearance and the original size of thread M10 as a constant. The pitch was altered in a range between 1 mm and 1.25 mm. Design of Experiment (DOE) Taguchi L9 orthogonal array was used to study the optimization process for toolpost shaft efficiency. The parameters include cutting clearance, coolant types and rotation speed at three different levels. It was found that for both depth of cut and machining time yields were strongly affected by the rotation speed and followed by cutting clearance. Background/Objectives: In industry, standardizing the toolpost shaft clearance is a major issue since their usage varies by different sizes of clearance. Hence, the study investigates the variety of clearance at toolpost shaft for its cutting efficiency in CCM. The re-design toolpost are fabricated by referring to the industry requirement. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The toolpost of CCM was fabricated by machining process. Then, the optimization of fabricated toolpost efficiency was done by using Design of Experiment Taguchi method and analyzed by using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) analytical tool in MINITAB 15. Findings: CCM toolpost was successfully fabricated in two new sizes and fully functioning. The optimization of toolpost efficiency process yields were depth of cut and machining time. It shows that both of these efficiency yields were strongly affected by the rotation speed and cutting clearance. Applications/Improvements: Results from this study showed that the optimum of overall efficiency was found in the depth of cut for higher number of cutting in less time. This will increase productivity at the production line for the next pipe cutting.