Selection of Nd:YAG laser beam micro-drilling parameters using multi-criteria decision making methods.

• Carried out Nd:YAG laser micro-drilling operations on gamma titanium aluminide. • Observed quality characteristics of through micro-drilled holes. • Proposed a combined Fuzzy-TOPSIS and RSM technique for parametric optimization. Multi criteria decision making methods and response surface methodology based approaches are invariably utilized in improvement of quality in several manufacturing industries. This paper presents the technique to determine optimal process parameters during micro-drilling using Nd:YAG laser source on gamma titanium aluminide alloy using fuzzy-TOPSIS (fuzzy-technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution) and RSM (response surface methodology) together. A new alloy, Gamma-titanium aluminide (Ti-44.5, Al-2, Cr-2, Nb-0.3B (at%)) has been chosen for experimentation. This material possesses desirable qualities like very high hardness, high strength temperature resistant, high yield stress and ultimate strength in tension, good creep, very low density, resistance to oxidation etc., found applications in technologically advanced industries like spacecrafts, aerospace, nuclear power plants, electronics, automobiles etc. A model has been developed which can be used for decision making in identifying the optimum laser parameters like lamp current, pulse frequency, air pressure and thickness of the workpiece, which affect several quality aspects of micro-machined job such as hole circularity at entry, hole circularity at exit and taper of drilled hole. Triangular fuzzy numbers are being utilized to calculate weighting factor of each machining criterion. Also, the combination of most desirable factor levels has been obtained using a fuzzy-TOPSIS method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]