Sustainable machining of Hastelloy C-276 enabling minimum quantity lubrication of environmentally compatible lubricants

Abstract

Present industrial scenario attempts to achieve the sustainable manufacturing goal considering economic viability, ecological vulnerability, technological suitability and social acceptability. Also, in current manufacturing paradigm, the machining of fatigue resistance material like Hastelloy C-276 possessing vast applications in aerospace, nuclear and petroleum industries is still challenging. Consequently, leads to uneconomical process and degradation of environment during dry machining and conventional lubrication methods. The present investigations have been focused on economic and ecological sense of machining Hastelloy C-276 with reference to tool damage, surface roughness and lubrication action using different lubricating oils. The flash point, viscosity, and pH values of different oils have been measured using Pensky Marten apparatus, Fann viscometer, measuring strips and a digital pH meter. Additionally, the appearance, odour, and flow ability have been examined physically. The experimental results depicted that surface roughness has been improved by 1.5–62% during vegetable oil and 22% in used oil compared to synthetic oil at lower range of machining parameters. However, at higher levels of process variables, synthetic oil performed better than used oil by 29.2%–98.9% respectively. SEM micrograph indicated 26.17%–50% lower flank wear during vegetable oil compared to synthetic oil. However, Synthetic oil has reduced the tool wear by 3.7%–61.74% than used oil. Further, the coefficient of friction among three oils has varied from 17 to 22.5% manifesting that used oil have considerable lubrication effect. Moreover, the ANOVA analysis revealed that feed rate and lubricant type have an appreciable impact on shear angle and coefficient of friction with maximum percentage error of 3.03% and 6.38% respectively. Finally, minimum quantity lubricant (MQL) of vegetable and synthetic oil has offered a sustainable perspective due to excellent machining performance, better work place conditions, and high-tech lubrication methodology.