Performance of non-edible oils as cutting fluids for green manufacturing

Manufacturing industries use cutting fluid in huge quantities. It has been reported multiple times that these conventional cutting fluids are toxic and not safe for humans and the environment. Vegetable oils are a good alternative to conventional cutting fluids. Non-edible oils should be explored for their applicability as cutting fluid. In this research, water-soluble cutting fluids are formulated from non-edible oils - Castor oil and Karanja oil and food-grade surfactants - for preparing totally green cutting fluids using two surfactants mixture. The performance of these two developed cutting fluids is compared with a conventional cutting fluid in machining steel in an attempt to provide an environment-friendly alternate to the industry. The cutting fluid formulated from Karanja oil was able to reduce the cutting force by 11.12%, surface roughness by 23.57%, and tool wear by 22.77% to the conventional mineral oil-based cutting fluid. However, the performance of castor oil-based cutting fluid was lower than Karanja oil-based cutting fluid due to its much higher viscosity. The developed cutting fluids are safe for humans and the environment. The results indicate positively toward the use of non-edible oil-based cutting fluids as an alternate to the mineral oil-based cutting fluid.