Investigation of effects of nanofluids on turning of AISI D2 steel using minimum quantity lubrication

Large quantity of metal working fluid used for each day in industry for metal cutting operations like milling, drilling, stamping, turning etc. But high consumption of metal working fluids creating some big problems like occupational diseases to workers and creating environmental pollution and also increasing the machining cost. To overcome the drawbacks of metal working fluids a new technique which provides better results by using lesser amount of metal working fluids is known as Minimum quantity lubrication. The performance of minimum quantity lubrication using conventional cutting fluids can be further improved with the help of nanofluids. Nanofluids having suspended solid nanometer sized particles in base oil which improves the thermal conductivity and lubrication properties. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of Carbon nanotubes on turning of American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) D2 steel using minimum quantity lubrication. The high carbon high chromium AISI D2 was turned at different speed, feed and using tungsten carbide insert (CNMG 120408). The experiment was designed and analyzed with the help of Taguchi design and analysis in MINITAB 16. The optimized results indicate that minimum quantity lubrication using nanofluid (NFMQL) shows promising results over minimum quantity lubrication technique using conventional cutting fluid in terms of cutting zone temperature, and surface roughness.