Investigation of the influence of lubricating oils on the turning of metallic materials with cryogenic minimum quantity lubrication

Abstract Nowadays, cooling and lubrication for cutting processes in industry are mostly based on flood cooling. The enormous quantities of lubricants are not only harmful for the environment and employees, but also require additional infrastructure and pre-treatment, while processed parts require an additional cleaning step due to metallic swarf which leads to high manufacturing costs. The cryogenic minimum quantity lubrication could serve as an alternative cooling and lubrication concept, which might be suitable for high-alloyed steels and titanium alloys as well. Within this work the potential of this new concept of cooling and lubrication was investigated by the utilization of different lubricants for turning of Ti6Al4V, X5CrNi18-10 and 42CrMo4 workpieces with a main focus on cutting forces, tool wear and resulting surface roughness. Required data indicates that the cryogenic minimum quantity lubrication might indeed be suitable to replace the conventional wet processing routes. The proper lubricants are selected to match the material to be machined.