Evaluation of Palm Oil-Nano Particle Cutting Fluids on Turning of Inconel 718

Abstract

AbstractIt is an established fact that mineral based cutting fluids facilitates the quality of machining operation. Nevertheless, the negative impacts inherent in these conventional cutting fluids such as environmental pollution and adverse effects on operators’ health have become major source of concern. Sequel to these concerns, there has been continuous effort at finding alternatives to these mineral based cutting fluids. In this study, diamond, copper oxide and iron oxide were selected as additives to virgin palm oil as nano-based cutting fluids applied in the turning of Inconel 718 under minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) method. The performance of each nano-based cutting fluids was evaluated in terms of machining characteristics such as cutting temperature, chip morphology and chip reduction coefficient as well as tool wear. The results obtained from the experiment were statistically analyzed using Signal to Noise (S/N) ratio technique. S/N ratio was used to determine which cutting parameter had significant effect on machining characteristics during the turning operation. The results showed that cutting speed was the most influential control factor on cutting temperature while feed rate was the most influential control factor on chip reduction coefficient. The results also indicated that the nano-diamond based palm oil outperformed nano-copper oxide and nano-iron oxide-based palm oil in terms of cutting temperature, chip reduction coefficient as well as tool wear. It is expected that these findings would contribute to the industrial application of nanosized sustainable lubricants. The study culminates with recommendations for further studies.KeywordsInconel 718Lathe turningCutting fluidVegetable oilNano-particles