Optimisation of machining parameters in multi-pass turnings using ant colony optimisations

Optimisation of machining parameters is of concern in manufacturing world due to economic reason. To deal with this non-linear optimisation problem that aims to minimise the unit production cost (UC) in multi-pass turning operations, this paper proposes a novel approach, which combines ant colony optimisations (ACO) with a pass enumerating method. Theoretical lower bounds on UC are used to rank the subproblems and to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms at the same time. In applying ACO to solve the problems, the bound adjustment of optimised variants (BAOV) method is incorporated with the decimal encoding to represent the solution. Simulation results show that this optimisation approach can find better results than previous algorithms to significantly reduce the UC, and run more efficiently.