Progressing towards Sustainable Machining of Steels: A Detailed Review

Abstract

Machining operations are very common for the production of auto parts, i.e., connecting rods, crankshafts, etc. In machining, the use of cutting oil is very necessary, but it leads to higher machining costs and environmental problems. About 17% of the cost of any product is associated with cutting fluid, and about 80% of skin diseases are due to mist and fumes generated by cutting oils. Environmental legislation and operators’ safety demand the minimal use of cutting fluid and proper disposal of used cutting oil. The disposal cost is huge, about two times higher than the machining cost. To improve occupational health and safety and the reduction of product costs, companies are moving towards sustainable manufacturing. Therefore, this review article emphasizes the sustainable machining aspects of steel by employing techniques that require the minimal use of cutting oils, i.e., minimum quantity lubrication, and other efficient techniques like cryogenic cooling, dry cutting, solid lubricants, air/vapor/gas cooling, and cryogenic treatment. Cryogenic treatment on tools and the use of vegetable oils or biodegradable oils instead of mineral oils are used as primary techniques to enhance the overall part quality, which leads to longer tool life with no negative impacts on the environment. To further help the manufacturing community in progressing towards industry 4.0 and obtaining net-zero emissions, in this paper, we present a comprehensive review of the recent, state of the art sustainable techniques used for machining steel materials/components by which the industry can massively improve their product quality and production.

A comprehensive machinability comparison during milling of AISI 52100 steel under dry and cryogenic cutting conditions

“…This is because of the decrease in the cutting zone temperature due to cryogenic coolant and thus constrains the phase transition. 26 A phase transition occurs because of the change in the temperature. 27 The change in the temperature was due to the increase in the Vc which leads to the micro cracks and it was evident in the SEM images.…”

Digitalization Business Strategies in Energy Sector: Solving Problems with Uncertainty under Industry 4.0 Conditions

“…Current employees are inundated with a lot of information of very different levels of importance through the available communication channels. Often, important messages are lost in the multitude of unimportant ones [140]. To increase the effectiveness of the message, it is worth taking care of a kind of marketing of internal information channels.…”

Electrostatic atomization minimum quantity lubrication machining: from mechanism to application

“…Cutting fluid has been used for hundreds of years as an essential part of the machining industry, and its main functions are cooling, lubrication, cleaning, and rust prevention, etc [1,2]. The selection of an appropriate lubrication process and cutting fluid in metal cutting can extend the tool life and improve machining efficiency and surface quality [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Therefore, the cutting fluid and its supply method play a crucial role in the machining of mechanical parts.…”