Analysis of the effect of sustainable lubricants in the turning of AISI 304 Stainless Steel

Abstract

The rising environmental concerns and threats of contamination and pollution have led to the quest for sustainable cutting fluids. In order to maximize the use and efficiency of cutting fluids, the knowledge about them is necessary. In this study, the suitability of various natural vegetable oils as sustainable lubricants in machining was investigated using the turning of AISI 304 stainless steel on Colechester Master 3250 lathe. Three different natural vegetable oils were used such as palm oil, sunflower oil and coconut oil. The oils were applied as virgin oil using the minimum quantity lubrication method (MQL). The Taguchi method of design of experiments was applied in the study. Cutting parameters such as cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut were used as input parameters and chip compression ratio and surface finish were used as responses to evaluate the suitability of these oils in machining of AISI 304 stainless steel. The result showed that sunflower oil has a better performance as cutting fluid