Simulation-based model for the optimization of machining parameters in a metal-cutting operation

To achieve a certain measurable performance in cutting machines, the machine parameters need to be optimized. Several constraints determine the possible values that these parameters can take. Although parameters are usually assumed to be deterministic, in practice, it is common to find variations on the characteristics of the products or the processes. Modeling machining parameters as stochastic factors provides a more realistic representation of cutting operations. Moreover, multiple operational objectives are of interest, in many real situations, these multiple objectives are conflicting. Consequently, the problem of setting the parameters becomes a trade-off situation. This paper presents a novel Simulation-based Multi-Objective Optimization (SimMOpt) solution procedure. The procedure is divided into two phases: (1) finding initial solutions and, (2) using a simulated annealing-based method for finding neighboring solutions. In the first phase, non-linear goal programming is used for finding high quality initial solutions. The second phase incorporates Pareto Archive Evolution Strategy (PAES) and hypotheses testing for searching near-optimal solutions for a set of stochastic parameters (i.e., cutting speed, feed rate, and depth of cut) in metal cutting operations. Three objectives are optimized (i.e., operation time, operation cost, and quality of the product). The results from implementing this procedure are analyzed and compared to a baseline methodology based on the Multi-Objective Simulated Annealing (MOSA) algorithm. The analysis demonstrates that the proposed method outperforms the Genetic Algorithm (GA), which was the benchmark algorithm, in terms of the solution quality of all the objectives. More importantly, the solutions from using the SimMOpt procedure outperform those obtained from using an enhanced MOSA-based approach (i.e., 4.71% improvement in the hypervolume approximation).