Performance Assessment of Minimum Quantity Castor-Palm Oil Mixtures in Hard-Milling Operation

Abstract

The necessity to progress towards sustainability has inspired modern researchers to examine the lubrication and cooling effects of vegetable oils on conventional metal cutting operations. Consequently, as an eco-friendly vegetable product, castor oil can be the right choice as Minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) base fluid. Nonetheless, the high viscosity of castor oil limits its flowability and restricts its industrial application. Conversely, palm oil possesses superior lubricity, as well as flowability characteristics. Hence, an attempt has been made to improve the lubrication behavior of castor oil. Here, six castor-palm mixtures (varying from 1:0.5–1:3) were utilized as MQL-fluid, and the values of machining responses viz. average surface roughness, specific cutting energy, and tool wear were evaluated. Furthermore, an integrated Shannon’s Entropy-based Technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) framework was employed for selecting the most suitable volume ratio of castor-palm oil mixture. The rank provided by the TOPSIS method confirmed that 1:2 was the best volume ratio for castor-palm oil mixture. Afterward, a comparative analysis demonstrated that the best castor-palm volume fraction resulted in 8.262 and 16.146% lowering of surface roughness, 5.459 and 7.971% decrement of specific cutting energy, 2.445 and 3.155% drop in tool wear compared to that of castor and palm oil medium, respectively.

State-of-the-Art and Future Perspectives of Environmentally Friendly Machining Using Biodegradable Cutting Fluids

“…More viscosity of Castor oil causes flow difficulty. Research was conducted with Castor oil was mixed with Palm oil to enhance the flow of cutting fluid [119]. Castor oil and Palm oil were mixed with each other in six different volume ratios, as shown in Table 7.…”

Machining feasibility and Sustainability study associated with air pressure, air flow rate, and nanoparticle concentration in Nanofluid minimum quantity lubrication-assisted hard milling process of 60Si2Mn steel

“…In addition, the use of vegetable oil for MQL possessing good lubricating property helps to improve the machining performance of hard milling process, while ensuring the environmental friendly of MQL method. 10 However, the vegetable oil in the form of oil mist tends to evaporate when it strikes to high temperature in cutting zone, so the lubricating effect is limited, especially for high speed machining, machining of difficult-to-cut materials, 11 and hard machining. 12 Besides, low cooling capacity is the main disadvantage of MQL technology, 13 so the application of this technology in practice is still limited.…”

On the Tribological and Oxidation Study of Xanthophylls as Natural Additives in Castor Oil for Green Lubrication

“…There is growing attention to the use of biodegradable lubricants to contribute to conserving the planet’s ecosystems [ 1 ]. This has triggered diverse research on numerous eco-friendly lubricants using different green bases and additives to improve lubrication properties in mechanical systems, as well as in engineering processes [ 2 , 3 ]. At this point, plant oils seem to be advantageous candidates for biodegradable bases since they show great improvements over petroleum products.…”