Effects of minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) in grinding: Principle, applications and recent advancements

Abstract

Increasing the production rate and simultaneously decreasing the cost of production is the target of every industrial house in the world. While coming to the production house the prime concern is to increase the cutting tool life of different machines. Numerous methods are available to achieve the desired target. Decreasing the temperature by removing heat from the machining zone is one of the methods of increasing the tool life. To remove the heat, different ways of cooling and lubrication are available like, dry machining, flooded type cooling, cold air cooling, minimum quantity lubrication (MQL), cryogenic cooling, tool texturing, solid lubrications, tool designing to name a few. Although the traditional flooded type cooling system gives good result but environmental point of view it is not a sustainable way hence the concern is how to reduce the cost of lubrication without sacrificing the quality. In the past few years more research is concentrated on MQL and mainly on hybrid mode of cooling methods like MQL with air cooling, MQL with cryogenic, MQL with different environment friendly oils etc. This article discusses different methods of sustainable cooling, advantages, limitations, applications of MQL, and the last section focuses on recent advancements in MQL in the field of grinding operation. This article will help to develop good knowledge about MQL and the recent advancements and shortcomings in the field of grinding in context with cooling and lubrication with MQL.