A company has received a contract to manufacture aluminum cases with a plastic polymer coating on the case for transceivers. A research team was given the responsibility to develop a process to adhere the polymer coating to the aluminum. The team identified 5 factors in the process which they thought to possibly affect the adhesion of the polymer to the aluminum. They were the type of aluminum alloy (A), the type of solvent used to clean the aluminum (S), the molecular structure of coating polymer (M), the percent catalyst used in the adhesion process (C), and the curing temperature for the process (T).

A 25-1 fractional factorial experiment is used to study the effects of these factors to the adhesion process, with defining relation I= ASMCT. The force to remove the plastic coating is used as the response, clearly, the larger the force, the better the adhesion effect. The experimental data is shown in the following table:

Factors Force

A S M  C   T     1         2

-1 -1 -1 -1 +1 41.5 41.9

+1 -1 -1 -1 -1 39.6 39.0

-1 +1 -1 -1 -1 43.9 44.3

+1 +1 -1 -1 +1 38.8 37.9

-1 -1 +1 -1 -1 48.7 49.3

+1 -1 +1 -1 +1 52.0 51.5

-1 +1 +1 -1 +1 55.8 56.2

+1 +1 +1 -1 -1 43.2 43.7

-1 -1 -1 +1 -1 39.5 39.2

+1 -1 -1 +1 +1 42.6 41.9

-1 +1 -1 +1 +1 44.0 45.0

+1 +1 -1 +1 -1 33.8 33.1

-1 -1 +1 +1 +1 53.6 53.9

+1 -1 +1 +1 -1 48.1 47.7

-1 +1 +1 +1 -1 51.3 52.0

+1 +1 +1 +1 +1 48.7 49.2

a) Conduct an analysis of variance study to identify significant factors and interactions, as well as ranking of the significant effects.

b) Draw main effect and interaction charts for significant effects/interactions.

c) Derive the optimal process condition for maximum adhesion

d) Write down a regression model to predict the force to remove plastic coating under various process conditions.