Vegetable and Mineral Used Oils as Cutting Fluids: Effect on Surface Roughness of Aluminum Alloy

摘要

The use of cutting fluids in mechanical machining operation is important to make cutting easy, produce low surface roughness, increase the rate of productivity, and alleviate the negative effect on work environment and operators. In this project the effect of using different cutting fluids on the surface roughness of aluminum alloy (T6-6061) was studied. The experiment involved the use of constant cutting parameters (cutting speed of 860 rpm, depth of cut at 1.5 mm, and feed rate of 0.12 mm/rev). Three local cutting fluids: mineral used oil, kerosene, and natural used oil (refined sunflower oil) mixed with water at different ratios (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25%) were used to study their effect on the surface roughness compared to a common lubricate oil used in the cooling process. Results revealed that mineral used oil gave the lowest (best) roughness coefficient at 5% water ratio followed by lubricate oil. Kerosene and natural oil had the highest roughness coefficients. Mineral oil could be recommended for use with local cutting machines reducing the huge amounts of waste oil produced in the country.