Modelling of Dross Height in Plasma Jet Cutting Process of Aluminium Alloy 5083 Using Fuzzy Logic Technique

Dross height is an important cut quality characteristic in plasma jet cutting process. It can be defined as molten metal blown from the cutting zone and localized on the bottom of the metal sheet. In each plasma jet cutting process, it is important to obtain dross free cuts. Aluminium is as material very present in shipbuilding and metal industry and because of that very usually cut by plasma jet. Because of high heat and electrical conductivity of aluminium, plasma jet cutting is followed by insecurity about process parameters settings that lead to optimal cut quality characteristics. The aim of this paper is to develop a fuzzy logic model that predicts the influence of variable process parameters on dross height in plasma jet cutting of aluminium alloy 5083. Experiments were performed according to Taguchi L27 orthogonal array by varying cutting speed, arc current and cutting height as input process parameters. Fuzzy logic model was defined using Mamdani inference system. This model was used to investigate effects of variable process parameters on dross height response. In order to analyse interaction effects of plasma jet cutting process parameters on dross formation 3D surface and contour plots were generated. The analysis revealed that the cutting speed has the most significant effect followed by arc current and cutting height. Obtained results of this research indicate that artificial intelligence technique, fuzzy logic, can be effectively used for modelling and prediction of dross formation in plasma jet cutting process of aluminium alloy.