Sustainability Of Machining Processes Research Articles

Role of energy consumption, cutting tool and workpiece materials towards environmentally conscious machining: A comprehensive review

Metal-cutting process deals with the removal of material using the shearing operation with the help of hard cutting tools. Machining operations are famous in the manufacturing sector due to their capability to manufacture tight tolerances and high dimensional accuracy while simultaneously maintaining the cost-effectiveness for higher production levels. As metal-cutting processes consume a great amount of input resources and generate some material-based waste streams, these processes are highly criticized due to their high and negative environmental impacts. Researchers in the metal-cutting sector are currently exploring and benchmarking different activities and best practices to make the cutting operation environment friendly in nature. These eco-friendly practices mainly cover the wide range of activities directly or indirectly associated with the metal-cutting operation. Most of the literature for sustainable metal-cutting activities revolves around the sustainable lubrication techniques to minimize the negative influence of cutting fluids on the environment. However, there is a need to enlarge the assessment domain for the metal-cutting process and other directly and indirectly associated practices such as enhancing sustainability through innovative methods for workpiece and cutting tool materials, and approaches to optimize energy consumption should also be explored. The aim of this article is to explore the role of energy consumption and the influence of workpiece and tool materials towards the sustainability of machining process. The article concludes that sustainability of the machining process can be improved by incorporating different innovative approaches related to the energy and tool–workpiece material consumptions.

An extensive review of the water consumption and cutting fluid based sustainability concerns in the metal cutting sector

Abstract Machining processes consume natural resources as input streams and generate intense heat during the cutting process due to excessive shearing caused by plastic deformation and friction. The excessive amount of heat generation in the cutting zone can impair the machining performance and service life of the product by reducing the tool life, disturbing the surface integrity and dimensional tolerancing of the machined part. Due to the consumption of natural resources and generation of waste output streams, sustainability of machining process is questioned. Application of cutting fluid in machining processes is considered as one of the major contributor towards higher environmental impact. Despite of their disposal problem, cutting fluids involve generous amount of water for their preparation. The current study aims to provide a systematic, critical and comprehensive review about the following objectives; (1) water demand in machining, and (2) progress of different environment friendly lubrication/cooling strategies. For the first research objective of water demand in the machining processes, the study presented a thorough start-of-the-art about the water foot print involved in the machining processes. For the second research objective, different environment friendly lubrication and cooling strategies were critically discussed based on the solution provided by different metal cutting studies. For this purpose, studies from the last couple of decades were given a special consideration. The study also includes the influence of cutting parameters and different nature of machining processes such as milling, turning, drilling and grinding etc. under different green lubrication and cooling strategies. Finally, the study concludes the potential solutions to replace conventional cooling methods, and recommends future directions based on their associated current challenges.

Experimental Investigation on Turning of Turbine Blade Material AISI 410 under Minimum Quantity Cutting Fluid

Turbine blade materials are super alloys and they are under go high temperature during machining process between tool and work piece it causes failure of cutting tool and effect the work piece surface roughness. The cutting fluids are used for reducing the effect of temperature in the cutting zone in this context the present paper investigates the turning of turbine blade material AISI 410 with Tungsten carbide tool under the dry, wet and menthol mixed with water cutting conditions. In the dry lubrication the air passes in the cutting zone at room temperature 25°C. In the wet lubrication only waterflows on cutting zone with different temperature say 10°C, 15°C and 25°C. In the third condition small quantity of crystalline menthol powder added to water and used as a cutting fluid. The cutting fluid pressure, velocity maintained constant in all three cutting conditions. A comparison between dry, wet and minimum quantity of menthol is investigated. Finally the results shown that menthol mixed with water act as a better coolant and it concluded that sustainability of machining process has been increased by replacing conventional cutting fluids with developed eco-friendly cutting fluids.