Determination of the Mechanical and Thermal Influences on Machined Surfaces by Microhardness and Residual Stress Analysis

Summary There is a great demand for informations about the functional behaviour of technical surfaces dependent from machininq processes. Thermal, mechanical and chemical influences determine the relevant physical properties of the surface. Besides metallographical methods and microprobe analysis, microhardness and residual stress measurements are suitable tools to investigate the physical state of surface layers. It is reported about the fundamentals of these techniques, their experimental execution and the accuracy to be expected. The combined application offers the determination of causes for the generation of the surface state which are thermal or mechanical induced plastic deformation, structural transformation, or chemical reaction.