Surface integrity a key issue in hard turning - a review

Hard turning is an attractive alternative to grinding for steel parts, which are often loaded to their physical limits. But in comparison to grinding, the issue of surface integrity in hard turning is not yet clearly established in context of its adaptability for industrial use. This paper presents a survey of recent research progress in regard of surface integrity issues related to hard turning of hardened steel. A significant pool of hard turning studies has been surveyed in an attempt to achieve better understanding of surface issues, i.e., surface roughness, residual stress, white layer formation and microhardness variations. Further important modelling techniques based on finite element, soft computing and other mathematical approaches used in hard turning are reviewed.