Performance analysis of cold air assisted micro lubrication in end milling of AISI D2 steel

This paper describes about experiment conducted on End milling of AISI D2 steel material under Dry, traditional flooded and cold air assisted micro-lubrication. Tool wear and surface roughness were selected as metrics for evaluating the performance of the said lubrication systems. Dry machining and micro-lubrication methods are considered as cleaner production strategy in context of sustainable manufacturing, aiming to reduce harmful impact of mineral based lubricants over humans as well as environment. Experiments were conducted based on Taguchi’s orthogonal matrix L27. Lubrication method, cutting speed and feed rate were selected as controlled variables. Dry machining, MQL and Vortex tube generated cold air with MQL were selected as lubrication methods. ANOVA of L27 Experiments found that coolant and feed rate affects the surface roughness the most contributing 41 and 32% respectively. Similarly, same factors contribute 33 and 41% for flank wear. Desirability function analysis and Grey Relational analysis are used to find optimal setting of process parameters. Study under DFA indicated that the coolant and feed rate are the most influencing factors contributing 45.17 and 42.18% for Composite desirability Index. Similarly, In GRA, for maximization of grey relational grade, coolant method and feed rate contributed 40 and 42.37%, respectively.