Taguchi’s L18 Design of Experiments for Investigating the Effects of Cutting Parameters on Surface Integrity in X5CrNi18-10 Turning

X5CrNi18-10 is becoming highly popular due to its excellent properties like corrosion resistance and high toughness. These properties make it difficult to machine and reach a surface finish with high precision and class accuracy, which the automotive and marine industries require. Manufacturers can achieve a high-quality surface finish by analyzing surface integrity. This research aims to understand the effect of cutting parameters on surface integrity and highlight the parameters that provide good results. This study uses Taguchi’s L18 orthogonal array (OA) to examine the effects of cutting parameters and their impact on surface integrity. To completely understand the results, correlation analysis, confocal microscopy, light optical microscopy, and microhardness analysis were performed to analyze the effects of cutting parameters on the surface integrity. Results suggest that depth of cut (DOC) and cutting speed (vc) have minimal effect, while feed rate (f) has more effects on the surface quality. In correlation analysis, it was found that feed rate influences arithmetic average surface roughness (Ra) and mean surface roughness depth (Rz). It can be concluded that vc—300 m/min, DOC (ap)—0.5 mm, and f—0.08 mm/rev provide good results in turning X5CrNi18-10.