7. Conclusions

The study of the need for this process has shown that manufacturing strategies are in a state of flux. Flexibility is the order of the day, and there are hardly any well-defined rules, the important thing always being to manufacture at the lowest cost. The Taylor (1890) style machine shop is long gone. Machining shops with linear, homogeneous geometries are gradually being replaced by more flexible workshops, made up largely of numerically controlled machine tools.

Sequences are optimized by substituting, combining or eliminating them. Nowadays, it is not uncommon to think that a part that is to undergo a hardening treatment arrives in the machine shop already hardened. The gains in work-in-process due to heat treatments, waiting times between stations... are very significant.

Pc-BN's market potential studies show that the dry hard turning...