Machining Performance Investigation of AISI 304 Austenitic Stainless Steel under Different Turning Environments

Abstract

Environment friendly machining calls for minimizing the use of cutting fluids to reduce their negative impact on environment and operator health. Present experimental work is aimed to investigate machining performance of AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel with PVD coated carbide tool under different turning environments viz. dry, flooded and nanofluid minimum quantity lubrication (NF-MQL). Optimum turning parameters obtained through desirability function optimisation are found as: cutting speed of 160.67 m/min, feed of 0.06 mm/rev and depth of cut of 0.25 mm with predicted tool flank wear of 100.001 μm and surface roughness of 0.509 μm at 0.808 desirability level. Confirmation tests show 3.22% and 3.41% error between predicted and experimental values of V_b and Ra, respectively. Present study has established the superiority of NF-MQL machining over dry and flooded machining. The most salient achievement of this investigation is the reduction of tool flank wear by 32.26% under NF-MQL machining compared to dry machining and 9.68% compared to flooded machining conditions. Similarly, NF-MQL exhibits improvement in surface finish by 34.72% and 7.59% over dry and flooded coolant environments respectively, thus providing a strong basis to replace flooded coolant machining for sustainable future.