Application of integrated BWM Fuzzy-MARCOS approach for coating material selection in tooling industries

Abstract

The life of metal forming dies, and the efficiency of tooling industries depends on the mechanical and wear properties of tool steel. These properties can be further improved by depositing the ceramic coating on heat-treated tool steel. There are many coating materials available with numerous excellent properties. But problem is how to select the best coating material. Compared to various studies related to material selection problems in the contrasting area of utilization, remarkably, few research work is done in tooling industries. In the present work, we have identified eight coating materials (alternatives) and nine evaluation criteria under the consultation of an expert in the tooling application and tribological field. To deal with this coating material selection problem, an integrated fuzzy-MADM method is proposed comprising BWM and fuzzy-MARCOS. This integrated fuzzy-MADM method is used to evaluate the alternative, and the obtained results are scrutinized under extensive use of sensitivity analysis. In the first phase of analysis, seven scenarios of criteria weight change are used, which is derived by the BWM method; dynamic matrices are used in the second phase of analysis. In the third and fourth phases, obtained ranks are compared with those obtained by different weight calculation methods and ranking methods, respectively. All the phases have similar results, i.e., AlCrN/TiAlN coating (alternative Cm5) is the best coating material. What is more, the proposed method has been used to solve the published results of coating material selection. To evaluate its reliability and robustness, a four phases comparative sensitivity analysis was performed.