The Effects of Lubricooling Ecosustainable Techniques on Tool Wear in Carbon Steel Milling

Abstract

This research analyses the viability of using cryogenic cooling combined with MQL (minimum quantity lubrication) lubrication, under CryoMQL technology, as a cutting fluid in the industrial environment to justify the increase in the environmental footprint generated by its use compared to MQL in stand-alone mode. For this analysis, a set of milling tests were carried out on carbon steel AISI 1045, which is one of the most commonly used materials in the business day-to-day. In this set of tests, the evolution of cutting edge wear and energy consumption of both technologies were recorded to check their tool life through technological and environmental analysis. Thus, we sought to discern whether the energy savings derived from the machining process make up for the greater environmental footprint initially generated by the use of CryoMQL technology itself. The results obtained show how the use of CryoMQL not only increased tool life, but also allowed an increase in productivity by increasing cutting speeds by 18%; in other words, thanks to this technology, a more technologically advanced and environmentally friendly process is obtained. By increasing tool life by 30%, a reduction in energy consumption is achieved together with cost savings, which implies that ECO2 machining has economic and ecological benefits.