ABSTRACT
Finishing is usually the last operation in the manufacturing sequence of a part. It is an important operation to achieve certain surface properties on the part to fulfil its functional performance requirements. This operation is quite expensive and time consuming. In recent years, extensive technological developments have taken place in the field of nanofinishing. Traditional finishing processes (TFPs) have many constraints with reference to the size and shape of the parts that can be finished, the surface integrity of the finished parts and the level to which the surface finish can be achieved. To overcome some of the constraints of the TFPs, advanced finishing processes (AFPs) have been developed to the extent that they are being used on the shop floor of medium and large scale industries. There is a specific need for such processes especially in cases of free-form surfaces which need flexible finishing tool to achieve nanometre level surface finish without any surface and sub-surface defects. Some of the examples where we come across the free-form surfaces are human implants as shown in Figure 1.1.
