| Nowadays industries desire to obtain parts with better accuracy (dimensional and form) and surface finish at low cost. These factors (accuracy, cost and productivity) are used to evaluate the performance of machining processes. When material removal rate increases, the higher tool temperature is anticipated and therefore, better cooling is required. To reduce the heat effects on cutting tools and therefore improve the life, an efficient and cost effective application of the cutting fluid is required. Also, to cope with environmental and occupational safety issues, new cooling and lubricating methods such as minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) and minimum quantity cooling (MQC) have been proposed. The use of near dry or minimum quantity cooling lubrication (MQCL) considerably decreases cutting fluid consumption as compared to conventional flood cooling and it increases the machinability when compared with dry machining. The surface roughness, heat generation in cutting tool, generated dust and aerosol emission can be known as machining quality index which are highly influenced by cutting conditions. The presented research work investigates the effects of lubrication mode (dry, wet and MQC) and cutting conditions (feed rate, cutting speed, air and liquid flow rates) on surface roughness, cutting tool temperature, aerosol and dust emission during turning of aluminum alloy 6061-T6. It is found that there are optimum conditions for which MQC machining leads to better surface finish than flood and dry machining; MQC and wet machining produce more aerosols (liquid and solid) as compared to dry machining; and finally, MQC produces less heat as compared to traditional wet machining. However, the MQC machining is preferable due to its less destructive effects on air quality and environmental hazards. |
