A review of near dry machining/minimum quantity lubrication machining of difficult to machine alloys

Abstract

Cutting fluids cool and lubricate the cutting tool and machined area, wash away chips thereby increasing material removal rate, lengthen tool life and improve dimensional accuracy. However, strict environmental regulations prohibit liberal use of conventional coolants due to environment, health hazards and economic reasons. But, dry cutting although environmental friendly is not feasible under all machining applications. Some materials when machined dry; tend to stick to tool face, spoiling tool and machined surface finish, can be efficiently machined under near dry machining (NDM) or under minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) conditions; in which cooling and lubrication in the cutting zone can be achieved by a tiny amount of cutting oil applied to tool tip T. Singh et al.with compressed air in mist form, thereby addressing the negative impact of flooded coolant machining. This paper, attempts to critically review research progress and current state of affairs in machining of difficult to machine alloys under NDM/MQL. He is a life member of ISTE. His areas of interest are hard turning, tool wear, condition-based maintenance and monitoring apart from statistical modelling and optimisation, machining of aerospace alloys under minimum quantity lubrication machining/near dry machining, green manufacturing, etc.

Machining Performance Investigation of AISI 304 Austenitic Stainless Steel under Different Turning Environments

“…All of this place AISI 304 stainless steel in the class of difficult-to-cut materials. Cutting fluids play a major role in addressing machining problems in such situations [7]. Functions such as enhancing cutting tool life, reducing friction, heat dissipation and improving machined surface integrity are obtained by using cutting fluids due to their lubricant, cooling and chips evacuation properties [8,9].…”

The effect of portable MQL applicator onto carbide insert during turning Inconel 718

“…This theory is parallel with the principal role to carry away the heat from the three main sources of heat during the machining. The main sources of heat are the primary or shear zone and secondary zone or tool-work piece interface and tertiary zone as exhibited in Figure 2 [10][11][12]. Primary zone generates the larger amount of heat.…”

Experimental investigation in machining EN18 using coated tool under dry and MQL condition

“…Industries and governing bodies are now focusing on reducing the use of this global misbalancing fluids with compensating them with minimum or micro level use of lubricants [1]. Beyond the use, lubricants also effects the skin, in order to despite the problems with the lubricants researchers have been performed using the minimum quantity lubrications [2], which was further termed as nearby dry lubrication [3] and further as micro-lubrication [4]. In traditional practices, the problems such as cutting forces, cutting temperature and tool wear was efficiently overcome by use of flood lubrications [5].…”