Integration of Design of Experiments in the Extrusion of Aluminum profiles: Optimization of Surface Roughness and Productivity

Aluminum extrusion is a crucial manufacturing process widely utilized in various industries such as automotive, aerospace, and packaging, due to aluminum’s lightweight, corrosion resistance, and high strength. These properties make it also suitable for structural and functional applications. Optimizing the extrusion process aims to improve profile quality and increases productivity, as a result improving overall manufacturing efficiency. This study targets to optimize the cross-sectional shape of extruded aluminum profiles utilizing a recess-type die particularly designed for L- shape profile used in construction and architecture as structural supports, including corner reinforcements in building frameworks and shelving systems. The die manufactured consist of six exit holes to extrude six aluminum profiles. Direct hot extrusion of Al 6063 aluminum alloy was conducted, based on three key machine settings parameters which are billet pre-heating temperature, container temperature, and ram speed, each tested with three levels. The experimental design was employed using Minitab software and implemented using the design of experiments approach particularly Taguchi orthogonal array method to systematically study the effects of process settings. The experiments were implemented on 1,800-tons extrusion machine. Surface roughness was recorded across six exit holes using microscope, also productivity was measured through the puller’s velocity on the machine.