Evaluation of machinability-based sustainability indicators in the eco-benign turning of Ti3Al2.5V alloy with textured tools

Abstract

The recent step towards “Sustainable Manufacturing (SM)” and efforts to reduce the consumption of cutting fluids have become the hot topic of research these days. Various efforts and strategies have been employed in the modern manufacturing sector to control the environmental pollutions generated from the application of cutting fluids. Therefore, in this holistic work, one such effort of reducing the consumption of cutting fluid is employed with the application of minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) and tool texturing. The turning trials were made on titanium alloy:Ti3Al2.5V alloy under dry and MQL conditions using textured and non-textured tools. The tool life, average surface roughness, specific cutting energy, air quality, and chip morphology were studied with the aid of the above-subjected conditions. In the end, the socio-economic aspects of all cooling conditions were studied and analyzed in the context of sustainable manufacturing. The outcomes of this study reveal that the combination of textured tools and minimum quantity lubrication considerably enhance the machining and sustainability performance as contended with other conditions. However, the air quality factor, i.e., PM2.5 particle generation, was less in the case of a textured tool with MQL conditions. Overall, it is worthy to mention that the combination of tool texturing and MQL cooling conditions has been considered as one of the potential combinations in the area of green machining.