Taguchi Method

Applied to a Heat Treatment

Process for Steel
Sean Gant
Jay Lee

EXAMPLE
Heat treatment process used to harden steel
components

Temperature

Level 1 Level 2
760
900 oC

Quenching Rate
Cooling Time
Carbon Content

35
1
1

140
300
6

CO2 Concentration

20

oC/s

s
wt% C
%

OBJECTIVE
Determine which process parameters have the
greatest impact on the hardness of the steel
components

ARRAY SELECTION
5 process parameters + 2 Levels = L8 Array
Experiment

P1

P2

P3

P4

P5

P6

P7

Experiment

Carbon Content
(wt% C)

Quenching
Rate (oC/s)

Cooling
Time (s)

CO2 Concentration
(mol %)

Temperature
(oC)

35

760

35

20

900

140

300

760

140

300

20

900

35

300

900

35

300

20

760

140

900

140

20

760

RUNNING EXPERIMENTS
Run 4 trials for each experiment
Experiment

T1

T2

T3

T4

68.00

61.41

66.33

97.07

69.84

64.76

86.07

51.67

74.36

61.30

94.57

96.81

71.71

58.42

77.23

60.05

91.27

90.89

84.54

63.72

54.39

73.01

50.10

79.62

64.65

91.51

72.68

84.33

60.31

60.69

76.73

74.97

Taguchi Equations

S m1

Sample Calculations for first experiment

(T1,1 T1, 2 ...T1, N ) 2

N

ST 1 T1,1 T1, 2 2 ...T1, N

2

S e1 S T 1 S m1

S e1
Ve1
N 1
(1 / N )( S m1 Ve1 )
SN1 10 log
Ve1

(68 .006 61 .410 66 .332 97 .070 ) 2

S m1
21435 .71
4

ST 1 68 .006 2 61 .410 2 66 .332 2 97 .070 2 22218 .63

S e1 22218 .63 21435 .71 782 .9257

782.9257
Ve1
260.9752
4 1
SN1 10 log

(1 / 4)(21435.71 260.9752)
13.072
260.9752

Experiment
1

SP1,1

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
1 1 1 1 1

SN
13.07

13.55

13.61

17.29

16.06

13.02

16.30

17.67

13.07159 16.55357 13.60861 17.2944

14.38204
4

Level P1
P2
P3
P4
P5
14.38 13.93 15.15 14.76 14.34
1
15.76 16.22 15.00 15.39 15.80
2
1.38 2.29 0.15 0.63 1.46

Table of the average SN value for each factor

= Max Min
The Parameter with the highest value of delta
is the most important parameter to investigate
(P2 Quenching Rate)