The influence of a newly developed refrigeration cycle based workpiece cooling method in milling AISI 304 stainless steel

Machining stainless steel produces a high temperature in the cutting zone, leads to a decrease in the tool's longevity and also adversely affects the surface quality of the workpiece. Conventional cooling techniques are not effective in achieving better surface finish and less tool wear formation. This research introduces a novel refrigeration cycle-based workpiece cooling process to improve the machinability of AISI 304 stainless steel. The influence of this method in cutting zone temperature, surface roughness, tool wear formation and workpiece microstructure were compared with those of dry machining. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method provides a better surface finish, reducing roughness by 9 %, lowering the cutting zone temperature by 24 %-60 %, and minimizing wear on cutting tools under specific machining conditions. These findings can offer valuable insights for the manufacturing industry.