Using the Response Surface Method to Optimize the Turning Process of AISI 12L14 Steel

The purpose of this paper is to determine the optimal cutting conditions for surface roughness in a turning process. This process is performed in the final assembly department at a manufacturing company that supplies fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) spindle motors for hard disk drives (HDDs). The workpieces used were the sleeves of FDB motors made of ferritic stainless steel, grade AISI 12L14. The optimized settings of key machining factors, depth of cut, spindle speed, and feed rate on the surface roughness of the sleeve were determined using the response surface methodology (RSM). The results indicate that the surface roughness is minimized when the depth of cut is set to the lowest level, while the spindle speed and feed rate are set to the highest levels. Even though the results from this paper are process specific, the methodology deployed can be readily applied to different turning processes.