Application of Integrated BWM Fuzzy-MARCOS Approach for Coating Material Selection in Tooling Industries

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. Numerous coating materials with various excellent features are already available commercially; however, the selection of the best coating material is still an immense challenge for users. Compared to various studies related to material selection problems in the contrasting area of utilization, remarkably, little research work has been 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-multi attributed decision-making method is proposed which comprises best worst method and fuzzy-Measurement Alternatives and Ranking according to the Compromise Solution method. This integrated fuzzy- multi attributed decision-making method is used to evaluate the alternatives, and the obtained results were scrutinized via utilizing various sensitivity analysis procedures. In the first phase of analysis, seven scenarios of criteria weight change were used, which was derived by the best-worst method; dynamic matrices are used in the second phase of analysis. In the third and fourth phases, obtained ranks were compared with those obtained by different weight calculation methods and ranking methods, respectively. In the present study, AlCrN/TiAlN coating (alternative Cm(5)) was found to be the best coating material based on the results obtained after sensitivity analysis. Further, in this study, we have proposed a novel method that helps to solve the coating material selection problem or any kind of selection complications.