There is an increase in awareness about sustainable manufacturing process. Manufacturing industries are backbone of a country’s economy. Although it is important but there is a great concern about consumption of resources and waste creation. The primary aim of this study was to explore sustainability concern in turning process in an Indian machining industry. The effect of cutting parameters, Speed/Feed/Depth of Cut, the machining environment, Dry/MQL/Wet, and the type of cutting tool on sustainability factors under study were observed. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to analyse the data obtained from experimentation in a small scale machining industry. The process is modelled mathematically using response surface methodology (RSM).The economic and environmental aspect like surface roughness, material removal rate and energy consumption were considered as sustainability factors. The model helps to understand the effect of the cutting parameters and conditions on surface finish, energy consumption, and material removal rate. The process was optimized for minimum power consumption considering environmental concern as prime importance. Studies suggest that the cutting environment and tool type influenced on the power consumption during turning process. Extended form of the proposed model could be useful to predict the environmental impact due to machining process, which would bring environmental concern into conventional machining.

This paper focuses on the exploitation of the response surface methodology (RSM) to determine optimum cutting conditions leading to minimum surface roughness and cutting force components. The technique of RSM helps to create an efficient statistical model for studying the evolution of surface roughness and cutting forces according to cutting parameters: cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut. For this purpose, turning tests of hardened steel alloy (AISI 4140) (56 HRC) were carried out using PVD – coated ceramic insert under different cutting conditions. The equations of surface roughness and cutting forces were achieved by using the experimental data and the technique of the analysis of variance (ANOVA). The obtained results are presented in terms of mean values and confidence levels. It is shown that feed rate and depth of cut are the most influential factors on surface roughness and cutting forces, respectively. In addition, it is underlined that the surface roughness is mainly related to the cutting speed, whereas depth of cut has the greatest effect on the evolution of cutting forces. The optimal machining parameters obtained in this study represent reductions about 6.88%, 3.65%, 19.05% in cutting force components (Fa, Fr, Ft), respectively. The latters are compared with the results of initial cutting parameters for machining AISI 4140 steel in the hard turning process.