Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Materials Today: Proceedings

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr

Experimental investigation and optimization of surface grinding on

EN31AM steel using Taguchi and ANN
K. Siddartha Varma, U.R. Prasad Varma, Rama Bhadri Raju Chekuri ⇑, Tarun Kumar Kotteda,
Rajesh Mudunuri
Department of Mechanical Engineering, SRKR Engineering College, Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Grinding is the machining processes; it is used to enhance the dimensional accuracy and surface quality
Received 3 January 2021 of workpiece. The surface grinding process is affected by the different process parameters such as grind-
Received in revised form 3 January 2021 ing wheel speed, material removal rate (MRR), number of passes, grinding wheel grain size, work piece
Accepted 17 January 2021
speed, material hardness and depth of cut respectively. The feed and speed are the important factors
Available online xxxx
because by increasing these factors will directly impacts on surface roughness (SR). Even though, the
SR is reduced by improving the MRR. Surface grinding is the major process in metals cutting applications;
Keywords:
it is widely used in finishing operations of cutting machining processes. SR and MRR are the significant
Surface grinding
EN31AM steel
output responses in the manufacturing relating to quality and quantity. In this article, an experimental
Taguchi investigation of surface grinding of EN31AM steel is studied to minimize the SR and maximize MRR
MRR for the optimization of grinding process parameters. In addition, artificial neural network (ANN) and
SR Taguchi also employed for optimizing the input process parameters such as depth of cut, feed, and speed.
ANN Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Emerging Trends in
Materials Science, Technology and Engineering.

1. Introduction Finally, Power controlled grinding wheel controls the speed

Grinding is important finishing process compared to the con-
ventional processes utilized in production. Generally, the work
piece surface is affected by using the grinding process and its
material is removed. Because, cylindrical wheel presented with
the abrasive particles will be relatively moved on the surface.
The porous body is formed by the bonding of abrasive particles,
so results in removal of material in work piece. Here, abrasive par-
ticle grits distribution, size and wheel abrasive structure plays the
major role in improvement of grinding operation. Finally, the plane
or cylindrical surface are using the application of grinding. In these
applications, due to improper grinding the material removal rate
will be excessively increased. To solve this issue, various aspects
of the grinding process must be perfectly analyzed using the
empirical and physical models. The proposed article considers
the major input process parameters named as number of passes,
depth of cut and work speed, respectively. The grinding machine
consisting of bed with fixture to direct and it holds the work piece.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: chekurirbr@gmail.com (R.B.R. Chekuri).
mandatory speed of operation of grinding machine. The required
speed is obtained by the various dependencies such as manufac-
turer’s rating and wheel’s diameter, respectively. If the grind head
resides in the fixed permanent position, then work piece will be
moved and the grinding head will rotate around the permanent
work piece, respectively. The surface grinder consisting of ‘‘head”,
it is lowered to the workpiece and it is moves around the grinding
wheel based on back-and-forth conditions on a table. This table
contains a controllable and enhanced permanent magnet for effec-
tively utilizing magnetic stock but can have other fixturing means
or a vacuum chuck, respectively. The general surface grinders con-
sisting of the rotating grinding wheel and it cuts in horizontal axis
throughout the area of entire grinding wheel. ‘‘Blanchard” manner
grinders are the major form of Rotary surface grinders. They con-
tain the grinding head; it is used cuts the vertical axis throughout
the end face of grinding wheel. Mainly, the table rotates in opposite
direction around the workpiece underneath. But it removes the
bulk number of materials and also grinds smooth areas with
prominent curved grind marks. It is also utilized to flat shear
blades, parallel surfaces, fixture bases, and makes metal stamping
die sets with sharpening.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.01.495
2214-7853/Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Emerging Trends in Materials Science, Technology and Engineering.

Please cite this article as: K. Siddartha Varma, U.R. Prasad Varma, Rama Bhadri Raju Chekuri et al., Experimental investigation and optimization of surface
grinding on EN31AM steel using Taguchi and ANN, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.01.495
K. Siddartha Varma, U.R. Prasad Varma, Rama Bhadri Raju Chekuri et al.
Vishal Francis et. al. [1], authors proposed that if depth and feed
of cut will change continuously by making the spindle speed as
constant. Thus, the effect on SR will be perfectly observed and
the feed rate also perfectly obtained as important factors in the
for-iron cast. Moreover, other factors were obtained as important
for stainless and mild steel, respectively. H. Adibi et. al. [2], authors
proposed that the by rising the depth of cut will increases the stur-
dily with respect to the amount of loading on surface of the wheel.
But it is not affected by changing the table speed. Prakash et. al. [3],
authors proposed that the SR is manipulated by work speedcon-
stantly in the AISI 1040. It is also influenced by the number of
passes, grinding wheel speed and depth of cut respectively. Shih
et. al. [4] proposed that theaverage grinding average chip thickness
will eventually be reduced by increasing in grinding wheel speed.
And hardness of the wheel is increased by the in-grinding wheel
speed, thus it will result in the enhancement in MRRs. Hassui et.
al. [5], proposed that theworkpiece quality and vibration will be
directly affected by the wear of a grinding wheel. Nathan et al
[6], stated that by estimating the accurate life of grinding wheel
is useful in the process of grinding. Becauseit is needed to be
redressing after the wheel life expires. In this cylindrical grinding
machine, an A463–K5–V10 wheel is developed by the Hardened
C60 steel (Rc 40) type of specimens. The results show that the by
occurring the grinding burn will directly affect theground compo-
nentservice behavior and surface quality respectively.
Li Xue et al [7], stated that the reproducible SR was achieved by
the process monitoring of dressing, and the grinding wheel quality
also increases continuously. Here, SR was monitored by the acous-
tic emission sensors. By using these sensors, the unwanted grind-
ing wheel circumstances also detected effectively, thus the wheel
contour errors and mismatches in roundness wheel will be directly
detected. The results show that the faults occurred during the
dressing process were identified by efficiently using the AE signal.
And more prominent SR and grinding operation was achieved by
continuously monitoring the dressing parameters. J. Kundrak
et al [8], proposed that thecalculations of not direct decisive factor
forexact power of grinding will cause assessment of rough capabil-
ity of diamond. The rough analysis of diamond dressers was easy to
measure by calculating it. At lower speeds of wheel, the rough
dressing shocks will be effectively used and high rotating speeds
the finishing dressing was performed.
A. Sudiavso et al [9] proposed that the limitations presented in
the traditional dressing approaches will be overcome by using the
electrical dressing approaches. Because these approaches will
enhance the wheel abrasiveness along with durability of bonding
material gains. It also results in better surface finish by suitable
maintaining the process conditions. A. Sudiavso et al [9] proposed
that electrolytic in process dressing (ELID) grinding is best suitable
for structural ceramics precision grinding process. In the ELID
method was mainly uses the metal bonded grinding wheel because
this wheel is dressed in the electrolytical manner at the situation of
grinding process. Thus, the better abrasive wheels generate the
uninterrupted protrudent abrasive. By utilizing micro grit cast iron
fiber in ELID approach, the mirror finish surface grinding also effec-
tively possible. This technology has wide applications in case of
optical and semiconductor industry. Manojkumar Sinha et al.
[10] studied that the optimal dressing parameters are used to
grinding wheel grit size. And they studied about the dressing
parameters selection during grinding process. The dressing depth
was effectively calculated as 60-grit size for alumina material-
based grinding wheels. By increasing in the dressing lead will
manipulates the specific grinding forces and SR significantly.
Finally, to overcome the drawbacks of existing approaches, the
proposed method is contributed as follows.
2
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

To analyze the effect of surface grinding process parameters like
depth of cut conditions, table feed, work piece speed and grind-
ing wheel speed. The SR and MRR are enhanced with ANN opti-
mization for EN31AM steel.

The grinding response is modeled by grinding variables; thus,
the predictive quantitative relationships will generate in practi-
cal and applicable manner. These models will be effectively
used for the optimization purposed in the EN31AM steel surface
grinding.

In addition, optimization of process parameters also done using
ANN. Finally, confirmation test results are performed using
obtained experimental values of MRR and SR with optimized
values computed using ANN approach.
2. Materials and methods
Table 1 describes the chemical compositions of EN31AM steel
workpiece with the element type and the percentage of weights.
The values of input process parameters with their levels are
demonstrated in Table 2. Fig. 1 discloses the experimental set up
of surface grinding process. Following are the parameters utilized
for the experimental investigation (Fig. 2).
Depth of cut –0.03 mm, 0.04 mm, 0.02 mm
Cutting speed – 1000 rpm, 700 rpm, 500 rpm
Feed – 0.120 mm/min,0.095 mm/min, 0.075 mm/min,
Work piece material – EN 31 AM Tool Steel
2.1. Taguchi parameter design for grinding process
The machine quality characteristic features of turning are
affected by the process parameters. Thus, in the proposed work
considered process parameters are as follows: depth of cut (C), feed
rate (B) and cutting speed (A). Here, the selection of accurate
parameters is based on the interest and they are chosen by study-
ing the literature reviews. Finally, the preliminary experiments
were conducted.
2.1.1. Selection of orthogonal array
Table 2 presents the different input process parameters with
their range with the three levels. In this work, two – factor interac-
tion effects also studied by analyzing the process parameters, so
turning based selected characteristics are extracted. The interac-
tions are majorly considered among the cutting speed and depth
of cut (AXC), speed and feed rate (AXB) andfeed rate and depth
of cut (BXC) respectively. The three-dimension dynamometer is
used for measuring the cutting forces and turned specimen with
the help of randomization approach. Table 3 presents the detailed
outcomes of experimental output data of feed rate (mm/min),
depth of cut (mm),and spindle speed (rpm).The best machining
quality characteristics are generated by ‘‘lowering and improving”
Table 1
EN31 AM steel chemical compositions.
Element % weight
Iron (Fe) Rest
Manganese (Mn) 0.53
Molybdenum (Mo) 0.06
Nickel (Ni) 0.33
Phosphorus (P) 0.022
Sulphur (S) 0.015
Carbon (C) 1.08
Chromium (Cr) 1.46
K. Siddartha Varma, U.R. Prasad Varma, Rama Bhadri Raju Chekuri et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 2 Table 3
Input process parameters. Taguchi orthogonal array.

Process parameters Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Job no. Depth of cut (mm) Feed rate (mm/min) Spindle speed (rpm)
Depth of cut (mm) 0.4 0.5 0.6 1 0.02 0.075 1000
Feed rate (mm/rev) 200 250 300 2 0.03 0.095 1000
Cutting speed(rpm) 600 1200 1800 3 0.04 0.120 1000
4 0.02 0.075 700
the radial and feed forces. This type of responses S/N ratiois given 5 0.03 0.095 700
6 0.04 0.120 700
in the equation (1) as follows: 7 0.02 0.075 500
  8 0.03 0.095 500
1 2
9 0.04 0.120 500
S=Nratio ¼ 10 log y1 þ y22 þ ::: þ y2n ð1Þ
n
Here y1 ; y2 ;    ; yn indicates the various responses, they are used
kDN/1000. Then feed rate was changed into machining feed using
to control the machining characteristicsin various levels for each
formula (F  N). Table 4 presents the various experimental outputs
parameter.
obtained from the experiments. Thevalues of cutting parameters
were adjusted in the surface grinding machine (Table 5).
3. Results and discussions The main effect S/N ratio plot presented in Fig. 3, mean values
(Table 6) are measured with respect to the feed rate, depth of cut
Initially the technical parameters were converted into machin- and cutting speed, respectively. The minimum SR values with opti-
ing parameters. Such as cutting speed in the mm/min was con- mal condition are obtained by observing the main effect plot is as
verted into the spindle speed in RPM by using the Formula V= follows:

Fig. 1. Experimental setup.

Fig. 2. Final work pieces.

3
K. Siddartha Varma, U.R. Prasad Varma, Rama Bhadri Raju Chekuri et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 4
Obtained experimental values of SRwith Taguchi orthogonal array.

Job no. SR (lm) Spindle speed (rpm) Depth of cut (mm) Feed rate (mm/min)
1 0.235 1000 0.02 0.075
2 0.248 1000 0.03 0.095
3 0.354 1000 0.04 0.120
4 0.312 700 0.02 0.075
5 0.325 700 0.03 0.095
6 0.297 700 0.04 0.120
7 0.212 500 0.02 0.075
8 0.225 500 0.03 0.095
9 0.230 500 0.04 0.120

Table 5
Obtained MRR values with experimentation of surface grinding on EN31AM steel.

Speed (Rpm) Depth of cut(mm) Feed (mm/min) Weight (after grinding) Weight (before grinding) Time (in sec) MRR(mm3/min)
1000 0.02 0.075 137.456 150.516 38 0.343684
1000 0.03 0.095 141.956 150.983 38 0.23755
1000 0.04 0.120 145.538 155.610 38 0.26505
700 0.02 0.075 151.279 153.706 60 0.0652
700 0.03 0.095 147.329 151.257 60 0.10336
700 0.04 0.120 145.630 150.992 60 0.141105
500 0.02 0.075 143.934 150.185 70 0.1645
500 0.03 0.095 148.598 150.870 70 0.05978
500 0.04 0.120 146.809 149.438 70 0.0691842

Fig. 3. Effect of surface grinding parameters for S/N ratio (SR).

Table 6 Depth of cut at (0.04 mm)

Experimental results vs ANN values. Cutting speed at (1000Rpm)
Optimization with Taguchi Optimized using ANN Feed rate at (0.12 mm/min)
MRR SR MRR SR
Fig. 4 shows the main effect Means plot shows respectively for-
cutting speed, depth of cut and feed rate. The minimum SR values
0.343684 0.235 0.375 0.241
0.23755 0.248 0.275 0.246
with optimal condition are obtained by observing the main effect
0.26505 0.354 0.260 0.351 plot is as follows:
0.0652 0.312 0.0612 0.0.314 Depth of cut at (0.04 mm)
0.10336 0.325 0.106 0.319 Feed rate at (0.12 mm/min)
0.141105 0.297 0.140 0.301
Cutting speed at (1000Rpm)
0.1645 0.212 0.165 0.210
0.05978 0.225 0.0591 0.228 MRR: The volume of material removed to the machining time is
0.0691842 0.230 0.0802 0.234 defined as the MRR.

4
K. Siddartha Varma, U.R. Prasad Varma, Rama Bhadri Raju Chekuri et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

ðW b  W a Þ Depth of cut at (0.02 mm)

MRR ¼ ð2Þ
Tm Cutting speed at (1000Rpm)
Fig: 5 shows the main effect Means plot shows respectively for-
T m = machining times (min/sec).
feed rate, depth of cutand cutting speed. The maximum MRR val-
W a = weight of work piece material after grinding.
ues with optimal condition are obtained by observing the main
W b = weight of work piece material before grinding.
effect plot is as follows:
Fig. 5 shows the main effect S/N ratio plot shows respectively
Feed rate at (0.075 mm/min)
for feed rate, depth of cut and cutting speed. The maximum MRR
Depth of cut at (0.02 mm)
values with optimal condition are obtained by observing the main
Cutting speed at (1000Rpm)
effect plot is as follows: (Fig. 6)
Feed rate at (0.075 mm/min)

Fig. 4. Effect of grinding parameters for means (SR).

Fig. 5. Effect of grinding parameters for S/N ratio (MRR).

5
K. Siddartha Varma, U.R. Prasad Varma, Rama Bhadri Raju Chekuri et al.
Fig. 6. Effect of grinding parameters for means (MRR).
4. Optimization of SR and MRR USINGANN
4.1. Artificial neural network
ANN is the artificial intelligence-based data processing system,
which is functioned based on the biological neural networks with
the dedicated operations based on performance characteristics.
Even though, it is an advanced technique; due to mathematical
operations, it needs to maintain the following assumptions for
increasing the efficiency of system.

Each neuron holds the important data, so it must be perfectly
processed.

The connection links are used to transmit the signal between
various neurons with the weight.

Here, the weight is multiplied (convolved) with the input signal
and transmitted into neural net.

Theoutput signal is generated by the help of nonlinear activa-
tion function applied oneach neuron with respect to each input.
Multiple authors have studied the different types of neural net-
works by using various types of layers for the Grinding process.
This work majorly focused on generation of surface grinding pro-
cess with best optimal parameters by utilizing the ANN optimizer.
For this purpose, systematic method of back-propagation based
multilayer ANN is used for the training of network with multilayer
feed forward operations for simultaneous testing. Here, the train-
ing operation performed in four stages as follows,

Initially neuron weights are initialized.

Generation of back propagation model between the input to
output layers to reduce the errors.

After error identification, the weights will be re-updated for
error correction. The squared errors occurred in the output are
effectively reduced by using the gradient-descent property of
the back-propagation procedure.

Finally, user specific activation function based on biases is
applied to generate the resultant output.
In this work, majorly five input parameters are needed to opti-
mize, thus five input neurons are considered in the proposed ANN.
6
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
An done optimized output parameter is generated at a time
through one neuron of output layer by utilizing the only one hid-
den layer, respectively.
Finally, purelin and tansig transfer activation functions are used
in the output and hidden layers for effective optimization. Here,
linear transfer function is tansig and hyperbolic tangent sigmoid
transfer function is purelin respectively. Following equations repre-
sents the operation of each transfer function with its output:
purelinðnÞ ¼ n ð3Þ
2
tansig ðnÞ ¼ 1 ð4Þ
1 þ e2n
For accurate optimization, Lavenberg–Marquardt algorithm is
used to train the data along with the back-propagation operation.
Some initial exhaustive trial attempts are done initially, and the
training algorithm will select the transfer functions after some
time. Thus, the set target error occurrence is effectively reduced
during the training process with lesser number of epochs. Finally,
mean squared error (MSE) and average error percentage is used
to calculate the proposed network performance with optimal num-
ber of hidden layers to that of corresponding neurons.
5. Conclusion
The proposed work majorly focuses on optimization of various
cutting parameters forEN31AM tool steelsurface grinding process.
Here, depth of cut, feed rate and cutting speed parameters are opti-
mized by using the Taguchi optimization approach effectively. So,
these parameters are majorly used for turning of work piece
EN31AM tool steel. Finally by applying the Back propagated based
ANN is used to generate the optimal values are as depth of cut are
0.0.04 mm, 0.03 mm, and 0.02 mm, feed rate are 0.120 mm/min,
0.095 mm/min and 0.075 mm/min, and cutting speed are
500 rpm, 700 rpm and1000rpm respectively. By using these opti-
mal values, resultant MRR and SR values are generated and vali-
dated using Experimental work. The following conclusions are
obtained by analyzing taguchi and experimental results.
K. Siddartha Varma, U.R. Prasad Varma, Rama Bhadri Raju Chekuri et al.

To obtain the improved SR value, the optimal parameters com-
bination is feed rate – 0.12 mm/min,depth of cut – 0.04 mm and
speed – 1000 rpm.

To obtain the improved maximum MRR value, the optimal
parameters combination is feed rate – 0.12 mm/min,depth of
cut – 0.04 mm and speed – 1000 rpm.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
K. Siddartha Varma: Conceptualization, Data curation, Investi-
gation, Methodology, Writing - original draft, Writing - review &
editing. U.R. Prasad Varma: Investigation, Methodology. Rama
Bhadri Raju Chekuri: Investigation, Methodology. Tarun Kumar
Kotteda: Investigation, Methodology. Rajesh Mudunuri: Writing
- original draft, Writing - review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
References
[1] V. Francis, A. Khalkho, J. Tirkey, R.S. Tigga, N.A. Tirkey, Experimental
investigationandprediction of surface roughness in surface grinding
operation using factorial method and regression analysis, Int. J. Mechan. Eng.
Technol. 5 (5) (2014) 108–114.
[2] H. Adibi, S.M. Rezaei, A.A.D. Sarhan, Analytical modeling of grinding wheel
loading phenomena, Int. J. Adv. Manufact. Technol. 68 (2013) 473–485.
[3] D.B. Prakash, G. Krishnaiah, N.V.S. Shankar, Optimization of process
parameters using taguchi techniques when turning AISI 1040 steel with
coated tools, Int. J. Mechan. Eng. Technol. 7 (6) (2016) 114–122.
[4] A.J. Shih, M.B. Grant, T.M. Yunushonis, T.O. Morris, S.B.mcspadden, Vitreous
bond CBN wheel for high-speed grinding of Zirconia and M2 tool steel, Trans.
NAMRI/SME 26 (1998) 195–200.
[5] A. Hassui, A.E. Diniz, Correlating surface roughness and vibration on plunge
cylindrical grinding of steel, Int. J. Mach. Tools Manuf 43 (2003) 855–862.
[6] R.D. Nathan, L. Vijayaraghavan, R. Krishnamurthy, In-process monitoring of
grinding burn in the cylindrical grinding of steel, J. Mater. Process. Technol. 91
(1999) 37–42.
[7] L. Xue, F. Naghdy, C. Cook, Monitoring of wheel dressing operations for
precision grinding, IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology,
Bankok, Thailand, 11-14 Dec. 2002, 2:1296-1299.
[8] J. Kundrak, V. Fadorovich, A.P. Markopoulos, Improvements of the dressing
process of super abrasive diamond grinding wheel, Manufact. Technol. 14
(2014) 545–554.
[9] A. Sudiarso, J. Atkinson, In-process electricaldressing of metal-bonded
diamond grinding wheels, Eng. Lett. 16 (3) (2008) 308–310.
[10] M. K. Sinha, D. Sctti, S. Ghosh, P. V. Rao. An investigation intoselection of
optimum dressing parameters based on grinding wheel grit size, AIMTDR
2014, IIT Guwahati, Assam, India.