Effect of cryogenic coolant on turning performance characteristics during machining of 17-4 PH stainless steel: A comparison with MQL, wet, dry machining

Abstract

Nowadays, metal cutting industries are looking towards new sustainable manufacturing methods to reach the target set by the environmentally conscious regulations in terms of usage and disposal of chemical contaminant conventional coolants without sacrificing the productivity. Machining with cryogenic coolants is an efficient, emerging sustainable manufacturing process. In the current work, a low cost external spray cooling cryogenic machining setup has been developed to spray the cryogenic coolant at the machining zone. In the current work, cryogenic coolant (liquid nitrogen) was used to machine the 17-4 precipitated hardenable stainless steel (PH SS) at varying depth of cut conditions and the results were compared with a minimum quantity lubrication (MQL), wet and dry machining environments. The investigative parameters considered in the present study were cutting temperature, tool wear (flank and rake), surface integrity (surface roughness and surface topography) and chip morphology. Cryogenic machining has given beneficial results compared to other machining environments. Hence, cryogenic machining is the most promising technique for machining of 17-4 PH SS. From the health and environmental point of view, cryogenic machining is a clean manufacturing technique.