EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE OF ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY AND MINERAL OILFREE CUTTING FLUIDS: A COMPARISON OF FULLY SYNTHETIC, SEMI-SYNTHETIC AND HEAVY-DUTY EMULSIONS

Abstract

The paper aims to determine the relative lubricity environmentally friendly of the Fully Synthetic (FS) Cutting Fluids (CF) group and a bio-based emulsion and compare technical performance to Semi-Synthetic (SS) and Heavy-Duty Emulsions (HDE) groups. In the final section of the paper, the environmental impacts of the three CF groups are discussed and the method of calculation is described to compute their (GHG) emissions using a case study. The experiments were performed using a precision CNC machine by incorporating a rotating dynamometer attached to the rotating spindle to enable direct measurement of torque and thrust force exerted by the tap at low spindle speed to machine aerospace engine components in Titanium alloy (Ti-6AL-4V) under simulated field performance conditions. The paper describes insights into the factors affecting process variability covering the tool, material, preparation, and environmental factors, and ranks their effects. It also demonstrates the impact of GHG on the environment which can be reduced by using bio-based Metal Working Fluids (MWFs) rather than mineral-based. In total eight different CFs (two of the CF Heavy Duty Emulsion (HDE) , two Synthetic, two Semi-Synthetic and two non-mineral oil ) were compared and analysed against a known industry benchmark(BM). The initial findings in this paper, although focused on freshly mixed CFs products, suggest the non-mineral oil product can perform equally well or some cases even better.