Determination of Machining Parameters for a Specific Adjustment of the Residual Stress Profile by Induction Hardening*

Abstract Within the research work of the Transregional Collaborative Research Center TRR 136, process signatures were determined for processes that generate essentially thermal loading of the component surface layer. These process signatures represent correlations between material modifications (e. g. changes of residual stress, microstructure, hardness profile, etc.) and characteristic values of the material loading. The underlying idea is that the material does not know any processes but only loads caused by processes. In particular, the same loads lead to the same material modifications regardless of the kind of process. A decisive advantage of this concept over conventional approaches is the possibility of calculating the necessary internal material loads backwards on the basis of concrete specifications for the material modifications. If there are additional correlations between internal material loads and process quantities as well as between process quantities and machining parameters, the necessary machining parameters can be determined, too. In this paper, this procedure will be introduced using the example of one-sided induction hardening of cuboidal components made of 42CrMo4. The determination of the process signature by experimental and numerical investigations is described and work for experimental verifications are presented.