Using Vegetable-Oil-Based Sustainable Metal Working Fluids to Promote Green Manufacturing

Abstract

The ever-increasing awareness of the environmental and health hazards of petroleum and mineral-oil-based metalworking fluids (MWFs) is forcing the scientist and tribologists to develop alternative MWFs. Mineral and petroleum-oil based MWFs are also considered non-biodegradable which hinders their successful implementation in metal machining which requires regular disposal of used cutting fluids. On the other hand, vegetable-oil based MWFs are considered as sustainable green metalworking fluids/lubricants which are biodegradable and have superior cooling and lubricating properties. A review is done on current literature which shows that vegetable-oil based MWFs are not only better alternatives considering its eco-friendly nature but also offers better machining performance by enhancing the cutting tool lifetime and minimizing the cutting tool/workpiece interface temperature, friction and surface roughness. Different cutting methods like dry machining, flood cutting, and minimum quantity lubrication techniques are compared for a better understanding of the reported studies.