PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS, PART E: JOURNAL OF PROCESS MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, cilt.237, sa.4, ss.1-13, 2023 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
Surface quality has a significant effect on the reliability of an implant. The surface finish of the workpiece is influenced by
machining parameters, tool wear, and cooling-lubrication conditions. Typically, mineral oil-based conventional cutting fluids are
employed for cooling and lubricating purposes in industrial machining processes. However, the use of these fluids places costly environmental
and health responsibilities on companies. Consequently,
it is preferable to utilize an affordable and environmentally friendly
coolant/lubricant that does not generate liquid waste or have harmful side
effects. In this work, we conducted experimental investigations to
examine the effect of cutting forces, cutting temperature, tool wear, and the
quality of the machined surface on the machinability performance of medical
grade AISI 316LVM austenitic stainless steel. Five
different cutting conditions were employed in the machining experiments: dry cutting,
flood, minimum quantity lubrication (MQL), cryogenic cutting with liquid carbon
dioxide (LCO2), and cryogenic cutting with liquid nitrogen (LN2). Compared to the dry cutting condition, the cutting
temperature decreased by 42.1% under LN2 and flood conditions and by
40.4% under LCO2 condition. The
cutting tools exhibited small amounts of flank wear and nose wear, along with
the formation of built-up edges (BUE); however, no crater wear was observed. The
MQL method resulted in the lowest cutting forces, while the cryogenic methods
yielded the highest cutting forces. Among the cutting conditions, the MQL and
flood conditions produced the lowest roughness values and the best surface
quality. Conversely, the cryogenic cutting conditions led to the highest
roughness values and the poorest surface quality. Furthermore, the MQL
condition resulted in the lowest dimensional deviations.