Material Selection for Metal Gear Castings in a Foundry Process

Ovundah King Wofuru-Nyenke

Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.

Abstract

Material selection plays a vital role in the performance, durability, and cost effectiveness of metal gear castings produced through foundry processes. Selecting an appropriate material for gears is a complex decision-making task because multiple criteria such as castability, machinability, durability and weight must be considered simultaneously. Traditional material selection approaches often rely on experience and single-criterion evaluation, which may not adequately address the multi-dimensional nature of engineering requirements. Therefore, systematic decision-making techniques are required to ensure an optimal choice among available alternatives. In this paper, the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method was utilized in selecting the best gear manufacturing material among four alternatives, considering four criteria. The four criteria are castability, machinability, durability and weight, while the four alternatives are Aluminium, Zinc, Steel, and Cast Iron. The results indicated that the relative closeness to the ideal solution values for Aluminium, Zinc, Steel and Cast Iron are 0.72, 0.45, 0.58 and 0.21, respectively. Since Aluminium had the closest value to 1, which is 0.72, it is the best material for manufacturing the gears. This study provides a procedure for implementing the TOPSIS method of decision-making for material selection in gear manufacturing.

Keywords: Material selection, Gear casting, Foundry, TOPSIS, Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA)

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