A review on minimum quantity lubrication for sustainable machining of titanium alloy

In the pursuit of sustainable manufacturing, both academics and industries have been facing numerous challenges. The same has been the case in the specific domain of machining. The many applications for cutting fluids for lubrication & cooling purposes have been found as the most dominant contributor when performing both sustainability and cost assessments. The past few decades witnessed the emergence of MQL (Minimum Quantity Lubrication) as a highly beneficial technique however there exists a vast potential in the further improvisation of the traditional MQL techniques that most researchers focused upon. One such alternative improvement is the use of nanofluids instead of virgin oils (synthetic or organic) such techniques have resulted in reported improvements in thermal conductivity, viscosity, wettability, etc. of the coolant. The study shall focus on enlightening the advantages and impacts of using nanofluids while cutting three difficult-to-cut machine materials namely AISI Stainless Steel, Inconel, and Titanium, and compare the result with the traditionally used MQL as well as the other commonly used cooling strategies. The knowledge of such variations in results in terms of output parameters was surface roughness, tool wear, chip morphology, thrust force, torque, etc. shall exist further research studies deciding the working parameters and eventually moving well aligned with the sustainable manufacturing.