Effect of Coconut Oil-Based Cutting Fluid on Cutting Performance During Turning With Minimal Fluid Application

Literature Review

Vegetable oil-based cutting fluids are viable alternatives to mineral-based cutting fluids due to their properties like higher flash point, higher molecular weight, and dipolar nature. In addition, vegetable oils have others advantages such as very low volatility, good lubricity, and high viscosity index, as well as lower cost than synthetic oils. Vegetable oils are tri-esters of straight-chained, mostly unsaturated fatty acids with glycerol and have higher levels of biodegradability and much lower toxicity than conventional mineral or synthetic oils (Krahenbuhl, 2002).

Cetin et al. (2011) compared the performances of sunflower oil-based cutting fluid and canola oil-based cutting fluid with mineral oil-based cutting fluid during turning of AISI 304L austenitic stainless steel with carbide inserts. It was observed that the sunflower oil-based cutting fluid and canola oil-based cutting fluid offered better cutting performance in terms of surface finish and tool wear when compared to mineral oil-based cutting fluid.