Performance assessment of energy efficient and eco-friendly turning of Nimonic C-263: A comparative study on MQL and cryogenic machining

Abstract

Nimonic C-263 is predominantly used in the manufacturing of heat susceptible intricate components in the gas turbine, aircraft, and automotive industries. Owing to its high strength, poor thermal conductivity, the superalloy is difficult to machine and causes rapid tool wear during conventional machining mode. Moreover, the unpleasant machining noise produced during machining severely disrupts the tool engineer’s concentration, thereby denying a precise and environment friendly machining operation. Hence, close dimensional accuracy, superior machined surface quality along with production economy, and pleasant work environment for the tool engineers is the need of an hour of the current manufacturing industry. To counter such issues, the present work attempts to compare and explore the machinability of two of the most popular machining strategies like minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) and cryogenic machining process during turning of Nimonic C-263 work piece in order to achieve an ideal machining environment. The machining characteristics are compared in terms of surface roughness (SR), power consumption (P), machining noise (S), nose wear (NW), and cutting forces (CF) to evaluate the impact of machining variables like cutting speed (Vc), feed (f), and depth of cut (ap) with a detailed parametric study and technical justification. Yet again, an investigation is conducted to compare both the machining strategies in terms of qualitative responses like chip morphology, total machining cost, and carbon emissions. The study revealed that cryogenic machining strategy is adequately proficient over MQL machining to deliver energy proficient and gratifying work environment for the tool engineers by reducing the cost of machining and improving their work efficiency.

Effectiveness of using liquid nitrogen cryogen in grinding to enhance the grinding performance of hard steel

“…liquid nitrogen cryogen) is one of the most reliable alternative cooling, which creates a safe environment around the operator and a pollution-free atmosphere during operation. 16,17 Due to better control of grinding temperature, liquid nitrogen (LN 2 ), as a coolant, improved the development of defect-free surfaces, higher material removal rates and lower grinding forces in the grinding process. 18 Until now, numerous studies have been performed on the force, specific energy, temperature, surface texture, wheel wear, material removal rate (MRR), residual stress, microhardness and chip morphology related to grinding operations, [19][20][21][22] only some literature are available on difficult-to-machine materials for these parameters under cryogenic grinding processes.…”

“…liquid nitrogen cryogen) is one of the most reliable alternative cooling, which creates a safe environment around the operator and a pollution-free atmosphere during operation. 16,17 Due to better control of grinding temperature, liquid nitrogen (LN 2 ), as a coolant, improved the development of defect-free surfaces, higher material removal rates and lower grinding forces in the grinding process. 18…”

Performance evaluation of spot cooled vibration assisted turning for Ti6Al4V alloy

“…The ability of the coolant to intrude into the tool work interface due to high pressure is attributed to the improvement of the aforementioned responses. In the experimental investigations carried out by Jadhav and Mohanty, 10 MQL and cryogenic cooling were compared while machining Nimonic-C263 alloy in terms of surface roughness, tool wear and cutting forces. It was identified that surface roughness and tool life improved by 18.7%, 6.5% respectively while cutting force was reduced by 30% in cryogenic machining compared to MQL.…”