Solid Lubricant Assisted Machining -An Environmental Friendly Clean Technology to Improve the Surface Quality

Machining of materials has received significant consideration due to the increasing use of machining processes in various industrial applications. In machining, the heat generated in the cutting zone during machining is critical in deciding the work piece quality. Lubricants are widely used to reduce the heat generation. Their usage poses threat to environment and health hazards. Hence, there is a need to identify eco-friendly and user-friendly alternatives to conventional cutting fluids. Modern tribology has facilitated the use of solid lubricants such as graphite, calcium fluoride, molybdenum disulphide, and boric acid as an alternative to cutting fluids in machining. Solid lubricant assisted machining is an environmental friendly clean technology for improving the surface quality of the machined work piece.

The present work investigates the role of solid lubricant assisted machining with graphite lubricants on surface quality while machining EN 8 steel .The performance of solid lubricant assisted machining has been studied in comparison with that of wet machining. The results indicate that there is a considerable improvement in the process performance with solid lubricant assisted machining as compared to that of machining with cutting fluids. Results show considerable improvement in the surface finish with the use of solid lubricants. Due to the presence of solid lubricants, there is a decrease of surface roughness as compared to dry hard turning.