Optimization of Recycled Glass Fibre-Reinforced Plastics Gear via Integration of the Taguchi Method and Grey Relational Analysis

The increase in demand for industrial gears has resulted in the increase in usage of plastic-matrix composites particularly glass fibre-reinforced plastics as the gear materials. The usage of these synthetic fibers is to enhance the mechanical strength and the thermal resistance of the plastic gears. Nevertheless, the production of large quantities of these synthetic fibre-reinforced composites poses a serious threat to the ecosystem. Comprehending to this fact, the present work aimed at investigating the effects of incorporating recycled glass fibre-reinforced plastics in various compositions particularly on dimensional stability and mechanical properties of gear produced with diverse injection moulding processing parameters setting. The integration of Grey relational analysis (GRA) and Taguchi method was adopted to evaluate the influence of recycled glass fibre-reinforced plastics and variation in processing parameters on gear quality. From the experimental results, the blending ratio was found as the most influential parameter of 56.0 contribution in both improving tensile properties as well as in minimizing shrinkage, followed by mould temperature of 24.1 contribution and cooling time of 10.6 contribution. The results obtained from the aforementioned work are expected to contribute to accessing the feasibility of using recycled glass fibre-reinforced plastics especially for gear application. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.