CHOOSING HARD PART TURNING AS ALTERNATIVE TO GRINDING

As the process of machining turns more and more complex, looking for an alternative, i.e., grinding, as a viable option broadens the horizon of the workpiece involved and benefits reaped. Read to know how.

- Karthik Raman

As machining complexities continue to evolve with customers looking at new ways to balance precision with productivity, the advent of hard part turning has emerged as an ideal alternative to grinding.

Broadly, hard part turning refers to the machining of parts with a hardness of above 45 HRC, although most frequently the process concerns hardness of 58 to 68 HRC. The workpiece materials involved include various hardened alloy steel, tool steel, case-hardened steel, high-temperature alloys, nitride irons, hard chrome coated steels, and heat-treated powder metallurgical parts with application across end markets such as transportation, general engineering, energy, and aerospace.

There are several clear benefits of turning with a PCBN insert over the conventional grinding process for finishing hardened steel parts. Turning centres are less expensive and offer process flexibility as compared to grinding, without compromising on high precision needs, thus saving both time and cost. With new wiper geometries on the polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN) inserts, it has become convenient and easy to leverage turning for even demanding surface finish requirements.