Empirical modelling of surface quality in electrochemical-mechanical finishing of bevel gears

Abstract

Bevel gears are used to transmit power and/or motion between two intersecting shafts positively (i.e., without slip) and thus it is the most efficient device to transmit power and/or motion. This paper presents the micro-finishing of bevel gears by electrochemical-mechanical finishing (ECMF) process under different experimental conditions of current, rotating speed of workpiece and electrolyte concentration. Empirical models have been developed using response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN) with feed-forward back propagation algorithm. The developed ANN model has been optimised and it is observed that the developed model is quite capable of predicting the surface quality of the process for different sets of input process parameters. © 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.