Study the Effect of Vegetable-Based Lubricant on Surface Roughness during Milling Operation by Using Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

Milling is a common machining process with high cutting speed and material removal rate. High cutting speed tends to generate heat at the interface between tool and workpiece. This may reduce the surface quality of the workpiece and reduce the tool life. The application of conventional cutting fluid to reduce friction and heat between tool and workpiece may produce numerous environmental problems. The vegetable-based lubricant as an alternative for measuring the effect on surface quality during milling operation is studied. The relation between machining parameters such as spindle speed, feed rate, depth of cut and lubricants is analyzed by using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The optimization of surface quality is analyzed by using Box-Behnken Design of RSM. The research focused on using sunflower oil as lubricant during machining process using mild steel solid block with TiCN coated HSS tools and using synthetic oil as comparison. Surface roughness for using sunflower oil as lubricant is 0.457 μm which lower compared to synthetic oil with 0.679 μm. Feed rate and spindle speed give the most significant effect to the surface roughness during milling operation. The application of vegetable-based oil as lubricant gives better surface quality, prevent tool wear and offer environmental advantages.