Parametric Appraisal for Compression Behaviour of Machine Made Carpet: Exploration of Taguchi Optimisation Techniques

Abstract

Carpets and rugs are mainly classified into two types as hand-made carpets and machine-made carpets, in present; various machine carpets are available produced with needling and bonding techniques. In this study, an attempt has been made to identify the significant factor affecting the compression behavior of machine made carpets manufactured by M-Tuft hi-tech machine with exploration of Taguchi robust design philosophy for quality and productivity characteristics optimization. Lower the better criteria for compression and higher the better criteria for compression recovery (%) and tuft withdrawal force, are desirable to achieve better quality of carpets. The study aims at evaluating the most favorable process environment followed by an optimal parametric setting for improved quality and productivity. Process parameters considered are tufting speed (N), stitch rate (SR), Gauge size (G) and process response analyzed are compression recovery (%), compression (mm) and tuft withdrawal force (Kgf). Taguchi design of experiments based L16 orthogonal array has been used to perform the experiments. One of the most important mechanical properties of carpet is pile strength and thickness loss in terms of tuft withdrawal force and compression behavior respectively. This study focuses on improving the fundamental function of a product or process, thus facilitating flexible designs and concurrent engineering for reducing product costs, improving quality/productivity. The results obtained thereof have been compared with the predicted results followed by confirmatory test.