Title: A study on the sustainable machining of AISI 630 stainless steel under minimum quantity lubrication

Authors: Sivakumar Subramani; N.M. Sivaram; Narendra Laxman Gajbhiye

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Puducherry, Karaikal, 609609, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Puducherry, Karaikal, 609609, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract: In this study, experiments were performed by changing the cutting velocity, feed rate, depth of cut, and type of machining [flood, dry and minimum quantity lubrication (MQL)] to evaluate the MQL system's influence in turning AISI 630 (17-4 PH) stainless steel. Servocut 'S' is used as cutting fluid in flood and MQL turning. The optimum and most influencing process parameters on surface roughness were predicted through Taguchi L9 orthogonal array and analysis of variance, respectively. The lowest surface roughness, 0.185 μm, was obtained at the optimum process parameters (157.08 m/min, 0.15 mm/rev, 0.3 mm and MQL). The most influencing process parameter was found as the depth of cut with a 50.52% contribution. Furthermore, a good agreement was noted between the experimental findings and the predicted model. The utilisation of cutting fluid in MQL turning have, approximately 150% lower than the cutting fluid consumption in the flood turning. This significant reduction of cutting fluid can reduce the problems associated with ecological and economic and lead to a sustainable machining method. Further, it is recommended that the machining industries benefit when machining 17-4PH SS under predicted optimum process parameters to obtain better quality surface and less material waste.

Keywords: machining; steel; minimum quantity lubrication; MQL; sustainable machining; surface roughness; turning; optimisation; mineral oil; cutting fluid; AISI 630 steel; 17-4 PH steel.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMATEI.2023.128270

International Journal of Materials Engineering Innovation, 2023 Vol.14 No.1, pp.60 - 78

Received: 21 Sep 2021
Accepted: 18 Jan 2022
Published online: 16 Jan 2023 *