Knowledge of the performance of cutting fluids in machining different work materials is of critical importance in order to improve the efficiency of any machining process. The efficiency can be evaluated based on certain process parameters such as flank wear, surface roughness on the work piece, cutting forces developed, temperature developed at the tool chip interface, etc. The objective of this work is to determine the influence of cutting fluids on tool wear and surface roughness during turning of AISI 304 with carbide tool. Further an attempt has been made to identify the influence of coconut oil in reducing the tool wear and surface roughness during turning process. The performance of coconut oil is also being compared with another two cutting fluids namely an emulsion and a neat cutting oil (immiscible with water). The results indicated that in general, coconut oil performed better than the other two cutting fluids in reducing the tool wear and improving the surface finish. Coconut oil has been used as one of the cutting fluids in this work because of its thermal and oxidative stability which is being comparable to other vegetable-based cutting fluids used in the metal cutting industry.

1. journal of materials processing technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 900–909
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmatprotec
Determining the influence of cutting fluids on tool wear and
surface roughness during turning of AISI 304
austenitic stainless steel
M. Anthony Xavior∗
, M. Adithan
Mechanical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore 632014, Tamil Nadu, India
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 16 January 2007
Received in revised form
23 January 2008
Accepted 27 February 2008
Keywords:
Turning
Tool wear
Surface roughness
Coconut oil
a b s t r a c t
Knowledge of the performance of cutting fluids in machining different work materials is
of critical importance in order to improve the efficiency of any machining process. The
efficiency can be evaluated based on certain process parameters such as flank wear, surface
roughness on the work piece, cutting forces developed, temperature developed at the tool
chip interface, etc. The objective of this work is to determine the influence of cutting fluids
on tool wear and surface roughness during turning of AISI 304 with carbide tool. Further
an attempt has been made to identify the influence of coconut oil in reducing the tool
wear and surface roughness during turning process. The performance of coconut oil is also
being compared with another two cutting fluids namely an emulsion and a neat cutting oil
(immiscible with water). The results indicated that in general, coconut oil performed better
than the other two cutting fluids in reducing the tool wear and improving the surface finish.
Coconut oil has been used as one of the cutting fluids in this work because of its thermal
and oxidative stability which is being comparable to other vegetable-based cutting fluids
used in the metal cutting industry.
© 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
AISI 304 steel finds its application in air craft fittings,
aerospace components such as bushings, shafts, valves, spe-
cial screws, cryogenic vessels and components for severe
chemical environments. They were also being used for welded
construction in aerospace structural components. Most of the
components require certain machining in different machines.
During machining of AISI 304 the operators encounter certain
difficulties such as premature tool failure and poor surface
finish due to high temperature at tool–work piece interface. In
order to overcome these difficulties, the artisans working in
small and tiny industries started using coconut oil as a cut-
ting fluid for machining. It has been found that coconut oil
∗
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 416 2202228/43091; fax: +91 416 2243092/40411.
E-mail address: Xavior anto@hotmail.com (M.A. Xavior).
extended the tool life with a better surface finish for machin-
ing at low and medium cutting speed. In this context, this
study becomes necessary to understand the theory behind the
performance of coconut oil during the machining of AISI 304
material.
1.1. Machining
Turning is a widely used machining process in which a single-
point cutting tool removes material from the surface of a
rotating cylindrical work piece. The material removed, called
chip, slides on the face of tool, known as tool rake face, result-
ing in high normal and shear stresses and, moreover, to a
high coefficient of friction during chip formation. Most of
0924-0136/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2008.02.068

2. journal of materials processing technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 900–909 901
Table 1 – Typical chemical composition for the AISI 304
C 0.05487
Si 0.64
Mn 1.66
Cr 18.2
Ni 9.11
Mo 0.092
Cu 0.14
Ti 0.006
V 0.046
W 0.048
Co 0.40
Nb 0.013
Pb 0.015
Fe 69.7
the mechanical energy used to form the chip becomes heat,
which generates high temperatures in the cutting region. Due
to the fact that, higher the tool temperature, the faster the
wear, the use of cutting fluids in machining processes has,
as its main goal, the reduction of the cutting region tem-
perature, either through lubrication and reduction of friction
wear, and through a combination of these functions. Among
all the types of wear, flank wear affects the work piece dimen-
sion, as well as quality of surface finish obtained, to a large
extent. Asibu (1985) found that flank wear results in changes
in the mechanics of the cutting process, an increased ten-
dency for chatter and changes in the dimension of the product.
In practice, the extent of flank wear is used as the crite-
ria in determining the tool life (Byrd and Ferguson, 1978).
Flank wear may be due to adhesive wear or abrasive wear
caused by the hard second phases in the work material
(Ramalingam and Wright, 1981).
In machining of parts, surface quality is one of the most
specified customer requirements where major indication of
surface quality on machined parts is the surface roughness
value. Noordin et al. (2001) determined that the surface rough-
ness is dependent on the feed rate whereby the use of lower
feed rate produced better surface finish. It was also deter-
mined that the surface roughness values obtained increased
when the cutting speed was increased. Higher surface rough-
ness values at higher cutting speeds can be explained by
the highly ductile nature of austenitic stainless steels, which
increases the tendency to form a large and unstable built up
edge (BUE). The presence of the large and unstable BUE causes
poor surface finish. Wear at the cutting edge directly influ-
ences the machined surface roughness since the edge is in
direct contact with the newly machined surface (Ezugwu and
Kim, 1995).
Table 2 – Typical physical and thermal properties for the
AISI 304
Parameters Unit Value
Density kg/m3
8000
Elastic modulus GPa 193
Poisson’s ratio – 0.3
Coefficient of thermal expansion Mm m−1 ◦
C−1
17.8
Thermal conductivity W/mk 16.2
Specific heat capacity J/kg K 500
1.2. Austenitic stainless steel
Austenitic stainless steels are characterized by a high work
hardening rate, low thermal conductivity and resistance to
corrosion (Groover, 1996). Stainless steels are known for their
resistance to corrosion. But their machinability is more diffi-
cult than the other alloy steels due to reasons such as having
low heat conductivity, high BUE tendency and high deforma-
tion hardening (Kopac and Sali, 2001). Many attempts have
been made to improve the machinability of austenitic stain-
less steels (O’Sullivan and Cotterell, 2002). It was reported that
austenitic stainless steels are difficult to machine (Akasawa,
2003). Problems such as poor surface finish and high tool
wear are common in machining of austenitic stainless steel
(Kosa, 1989). Ihsan et al. (2004) carried out turning tests on
AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel to determine the optimum
machining parameters. Zafer and Sezgin (2004) determined
the best suitable cutting condition for machining of AISI 304
stainless steels by considering the acoustic emission during
the cutting process. The best cutting speed and feed rate
were determined according to flank wear, BUE, chip form,
surface roughness of the machined samples and machine
tool power consumption. It was concluded that, the low-
est flank wear is observed at a feed rate of 0.25 mm/rev
for all the cutting speeds. Tables 1 and 2 show the chem-
ical composition, physical and thermal properties of AISI
304.
1.3. Cutting fluids
Cutting fluids have been used in the machining process with
the purpose to improve the tribological characteristics of the
work piece–tool–chip system. It is interesting to note that the
use of coolants for machining was first reported by Taylor in
1907, who achieved up to 40% increase in cutting speed when
machining steel with high speed steel tools using water as
coolant (Taylor, 1907). Cutting fluids improve the efficiency
of machining in terms of increased tool life, improved sur-
face finish, improved dimensional accuracy, reduced cutting
force and reduced vibrations (De chiffre, 1988). Cutting flu-
Table 3 – Comparison of kinematic viscosity of the three cutting fluids
S. no. Temperature
( ◦C)
Viscosity (mPa S)
of soluble oil
Viscosity (mPa S)
of coconut oil
Viscosity (mPa S) of
straight cutting oil
1 40 1.63 26.8 45.7
2 50 1.04 20.3 28.2
3 60 0.89 15.46 19.5

3. 902 journal of materials processing technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 900–909
Table 4 – Critical parameters and their levels
S. no. Machining parameter Unit Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
1 Cutting speed, Vc m/min 38.95 61.35 97.38
2 Depth of cut, d mm 0.5 1.0 1.2
3 Feed rate, f mm/rev 0.2 0.25 0.28
4 Type of cutting fluid, D – Coconut oil Soluble oil Straight cutting oil
ids provide lubrication between the work piece and tool and
also remove heat generated during the metal cutting pro-
cess (De Chiffre et al., 1994). The chemical composition and
mechanical properties of the work material, the tool and the
cutting fluid are of vital importance in determining process
performance and finished surface quality. For applications
where a metalworking fluid with better lubricating properties
is needed, a non-water-miscible fluid may be recommended.
In other cases with high cutting velocities, a water-miscible
fluid is often preferred due to its better cooling properties
(Kajdas, 1989). But application of conventional cutting fluids
creates several techno-environmental problems. Environmen-
tal pollution due to chemical dissociation/break-down of the
cutting fluid at high cutting temperature, biological (derma-
tological) problems to operators coming in physical contact
with cutting fluid, water pollution and soil contamination dur-
ing disposal. The use of conventional petroleum-based cutting
fluids is potentially dangerous. The effects of a particular cut-
ting fluid on mankind, working environment, the work piece
and machine tool as well as generally on living environment
as a whole are usually expressed by their ecological parame-
ters. Machine operators are affected by contact with various
substances within the cutting fluids (Sokovic and Mijanovic,
2001).
1.4. Vegetable-based cutting fluids
Cutting fluids based on mineral oils are traditionally used in
production shops due to their chemical stability and frequent
reuse. However, the present trend towards new types of cutting
fluids based on vegetable oils and esters in machining is clearly
justified by their higher biodegradability and lower environ-
mental impact. Emulsions of vegetable oils were prepared
using ionic and non-ionic surfactants for use as metal working
fluids. Over the years, vegetable oils and fats have been used
and retained their importance as metalworking lubricants.
Most attention has been given to vegetable oil-based emul-
sions, and few references are available on these emulsions as
metalworking fluids. The use of vegetable oil in metalwork-
ing applications may alleviate problems faced by workers,
such as skin cancer and inhalation of toxic mist in the work
environments. Jacob et al. (2004) developed a vegetable-based
emulsion that can be used in the metal working industry to
replace partially or completely the commonly used petroleum-
based emulsions. Vegetable oils have good lubricating ability
and have been used for the formulation of metal cutting emul-
sions (Herdan, 1999). Vegetable oil-based emulsions were also
a part of recent research to produce stable emulsions to use
as metalworking fluids and in other applications (Alander
and Warnheim, 1989). Ioan et al. (2002) presented the first
experimental results on lubricating capacity of rape seed oil
compared to that obtained for a usual mineral oil. Belluco and
De Chiffre (2002) made an investigation on the effect of new
formulations of vegetable oils on surface integrity and part
accuracy in reaming and tapping operations with AISI 316L
stainless steel. Cutting fluid was found to have a significant
effect on surface integrity and thickness of the strain hard-
ened layer in the sub-surface, as well as part accuracy. Cutting
fluids based on vegetable oils showed better performance than
mineral oils. The efficiency of six cutting oils was evaluated
in drilling AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel using conven-
tional HSS-Co tools by measurements of tool life, tool wear,
cutting forces and chip formation. All vegetable-based oils pro-
duced better results than the commercially available mineral
oil in terms of tool life improvement and reduction in thrust
force.
Table 5 – Experimentation and observations
S. no. Vc d f D (Á) Vb Ra
1 38.95 0.5 0.2 C (26.8) 0.045 1.91
2 61.35 1.0 0.25 S (1.63) 0.096 2.49
3 97.38 1.2 0.28 St (45.7) 0.134 3.16
4 38.95 1.0 0.25 S (1.63) 0.075 2.30
5 61.35 1.2 0.28 St (45.7) 0.107 3.29
6 97.38 0.5 0.2 C (26.8) 0.071 2.11
7 38.95 1.2 0.28 St (45.7) 0.097 3.01
8 61.35 0.5 0.2 C (26.8) 0.055 2.06
9 97.38 1.0 0.25 S (1.63) 0.126 2.46
10 97.38 0.5 0.25 St (45.7) 0.104 2.43
11 38.95 1.0 0.28 C (26.8) 0.081 2.47
12 61.35 1.2 0.2 S (1.63) 0.085 2.59
13 97.38 1.0 0.28 C (26.8) 0.106 2.65
14 38.95 1.2 0.2 S (1.63) 0.068 2.32
15 61.35 0.5 0.25 St (45.7) 0.095 2.59
16 97.38 1.2 0.2 S (1.63) 0.105 2.51
17 38.95 0.5 0.25 St (45.7) 0.098 2.25
18 61.35 1.0 0.28 C (26.8) 0.095 2.61
19 61.35 0.5 0.28 S (1.63) 0.094 2.92
20 97.38 1.0 0.2 St (45.7) 0.10 2.35
21 38.95 1.2 0.25 C (26.8) 0.077 2.33
22 61.35 1.0 0.2 St (45.7) 0.069 2.46
23 97.38 1.2 0.25 C (26.8) 0.105 2.51
24 38.95 0.5 0.28 S (1.63) 0.076 2.68
25 61.35 1.2 0.25 C (26.8) 0.088 2.46
26 97.38 0.5 0.28 S (1.63) 0.10 2.92
27 38.95 1.0 0.2 St (45.7) 0.060 2.14
Vc: cutting speed in m/min; d: depth of cut in mm; f: feed rate in
mm/rev; D: type of cutting fluid; Vb: flank wear in mm; Ra: average
surface roughness in ␮m; C: coconut oil; S: soluble oil; St: straight
cutting oil; Á: viscosity in mPa S.

4. journal of materials processing technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 900–909 903
Table 6 – ANOVA for surface roughness
S. no. Factor Degree of freedom Sum of squares Mean squares Variance % contribution
1 Cutting speed, Vc 2 0.09 0.05 0.575 9.89
2 Depth of cut, d 2 0.13 0.07 0.805 14.29
3 Feed rate, f 2 0.56 0.28 3.218 61.54
4 Type of cutting fluid 2 0.13 0.07 0.805 14.29
5 Total 8 0.91 – – –
6 Error 18 1.56 0.087
1.5. Coconut oil
Coconut oil belongs to unique group of vegetable oils called
lauric oils. Chemical composition of coconut oil includes lauric
acid (51%), myristic acid (18.5%), caprilic acid (9.5%), palmitic
acid (7.5%), olcic acid (5%), capric acid (4.5%), stearic acid (3%)
and linoleic acid (1%). Coconut oil is one of the vegetable oils,
which remains as a white crystalline solid at temperature
below 20 ◦C. More than 90% of fatty acids of coconut oil are
saturated. The iodine value of coconut which is a measure
of un-saturation in coconut oil is 7–12. The saturated charac-
ter of the oil imparts a strong resistance to oxidative stability.
The specific density of coconut oil is 0.93 g/cm3 and the Cetane
number is 37. The flash point and viscosity index of coconut oil
is 294 and −130, respectively. Jayadas and Prabhakaran (2006)
analyzed and compared the cooling behavior, thermal and
oxidative stabilities of coconut oil with sesame oil, sunflower
oil and a mineral oil (Grade 2T oil). The thermal and oxida-
tive stabilities were determined from the onset temperature
of decomposition. Onset temperature of thermal degradation
of coconut oil is lower compared to sunflower oil and sesame
oil whereas the onset temperatures of oxidative degradation
are comparable. It had been concluded that coconut oil shows
better oxidative stability in comparison to other vegetable
oils with high percentage of unsaturated fatty acid content.
Coconut oil showed comparatively lesser weight gain under
oxidative environment among the vegetable oils considered.
Coconut oil has very high pour point (23–25) because of the
predominantly saturated nature of its fatty acid constituents
precluding its use as base oil for lubricant in temperate and
cold climatic conditions.
2. Experimental procedure
A Centre Lathe (Kirloskar make Turn Master 40) was used for con-
ducting the experiments. AISI 304 was used as the work material and
Sandvik’s carbide CNMG 12 04 08 insert was used as the cutting tool.
The inserts were clamped mechanically on a rigid tool holder DCLNR
2525 M12. After the machining process, the insert was removed and its
flank wear was measured using Mitutoyo’s Tool Maker’s microscope.
To understand more about the tool wear the microscopic picture of
inserts were observed using Carl Zeiss optical microscope, having mag-
nification range of 500×. The average surface roughness on the work
piece was measured using Mitutoyo’s Surftest surface finish measuring
instrument. The experimentation for this work was based on Taguchi’s
design of experiments (DOE) and orthogonal array. A large number of
experiments have to be carried out when the number of the process
parameters increases. To solve this task, the Taguchi method uses a
special design of orthogonal arrays to study the entire parameter space
with a small number of experiments only. In this work, three cutting
parameters namely, cutting speed, depth of cut and feed rate were con-
sidered for experimentation. Along with this, the type of cutting fluid
used, is also considered as one of the critical input parameters while
designing the experiments. Table 3 shows the kinematic viscosity of
the three cutting fluids considered in this work at various temperature.
Accordingly there are four input parameters and for each parameters
three levels were assumed. For a four factors, three level experiment,
Taguchi had specified L27 (3)4
orthogonal array for experimentation.
The response obtained from the trials conducted as per L27 array
experimentation was recorded and further analyzed. Table 4 shows
the parameters and their levels considered for the experiments. Cut-
ting fluid is one of the parameters that does not have any quantitative
levels but each oil is being considered as one level for experimenta-
tion. Table 5 shows the actual cutting parameters used for each trial of
experiment and the corresponding values of observed Vb (flank wear)
and Ra (average roughness value of surface finish) obtained.
3. Analysis of variance (ANOVA)
The observed values of tool flank wear (Vb, mm) and surface
roughness (Ra, ␮m) were used for determining the significant
factors influencing the machining process. The significant
parameters influencing the surface roughness and tool wear
were found using the ANOVA procedure. Tables 6 and 7 show
the ANOVA for surface roughness and tool wear, respectively.
From the calculations it is being inferred that feed has more
influence on surface roughness and cutting speed has more
Table 7 – ANOVA for tool wear
S. no. Factor Degree of freedom Sum of squares Mean squares Variance % contribution
1 Cutting speed, Vc 2 0.00139 0.000695 1.562 46.49
2 Depth of cut, d 2 0.00030 0.000150 0.337 10.03
3 Feed rate, f 2 0.00116 0.000580 1.303 38.73
4 Type of cutting fluid 2 0.00014 0.000070 0.157 4.65
5 Total 8 0.00299 – – –
6 Error 18 0.00801 0.000445 – –

5. 904 journal of materials processing technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 900–909
Fig. 1 – Feed rate vs. surface roughness. (1) Coconut oil, (2) soluble oil and (3) straight cutting oil.
influence on tool wear. Further it is also being inferred that
cutting fluid has considerable influence on both the process
parameters, i.e. on Vb and Ra. Model calculation for determin-
ing the percentage influence of each cutting parameters on
surface roughness is being presented in Section 3.1.
3.1. Model calculation of ANOVA for surface roughness
A model calculation for determining the percentage contri-
bution of one cutting parameter on surface roughness is
being presented here. In the first step, the overall mean was
calculated which was the average of the surface roughness
measured during the trials. The subsequent steps were self-
explanatory
overall mean (m) :
1
27
´
Ái =
1
27
67.98 = 2.52
grand total sum of squares =
´
Á
2
i = 173.93
sum of squares due to mean
= number of experiments × m2
= 171.46
Fig. 2 – Feed rate vs. surface roughness. (1) Coconut oil, (2) soluble oil, (3) straight cutting oil; depth of cut (d): 0.5 mm
[constant]; cutting speed (Vc): 38.95 m/min, 61.35 m/min and 97.38 m/min at the three points a, b and c, respectively.

6. journal of materials processing technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 900–909 905
Fig. 3 – Cutting speed vs. tool wear. (1) Coconut oil, (2) soluble oil, (3) straight cutting oil; depth of cut (d): 0.5 mm [constant];
feed rate (f): 0.2 mm/rev, 0.25 mm/rev, 0.28 mm/rev at the three points a, b and c, respectively.
total sum of squares = grand total sum of squares
−sum of squares due to mean = 2.47
sum of squares due to cutting speed
= 3[(A1 − m)
2
+ (A2 − m)
2
+ (A3 − m)
2
] = 0.0906
where A1 is the average surface roughness value observed
when the first level of cutting speed was used for machining.
Similarly A2 and A3 are the average surface roughness values
observed when the second and third level of cutting speed was
used for machining. The sum of squares due to each of the
remaining three factors are calculated using similar relation-
ships and found to be 0.13, 0.56 and 0.13 for the factors depth
of cut, feed rate and the type of cutting fluid, respectively.
degree of freedom for the error
= degree of freedom for the total sum of squares
−sum of degrees of freedom for various factors
= 26 − 8 = 18
mean squares =
sum of squares due to each factor
degrees of freedom for each factor
variance ratio =
mean squares due to the factor
mean squares error
percentage of contribution
=
sum of squares for each factor × 100
total sum of squares
=
0.09 × 100
0.91
= 9.89 for cutting speed.
Similarly, the percentage contribution of the other three
cutting parameters, viz. depth of cut, feed rate and cut-
ting fluid on surface roughness was evaluated. The results
of the ANOVA for surface roughness were summarized in
Table 6.
4. Mathematical modeling
Multiple linear regression models were developed for flank
wear and surface roughness using Minitab-15 software. The
response variable is the flank wear and the surface roughness,
whereas the predictors are cutting speed, feed rate, depth of
cut and the viscosity of the cutting fluids. The viscosity of
each cutting fluid at 40 ◦C was considered for the mathemat-
ical modeling. Accordingly the equations of the fitted model
for flank wear and surface roughness is given below.
Vb = 0.00052Vc + 0.0194d + 0.336 f + 0.000069Á − 0.0459
Ra = 0.00280Vc + 0.299d + 6.87f + 0.00067Á + 0.376
where Vb is the flank wear in mm, Vc is the cutting speed in
m/min, d is the depth of cut in mm, f is the feed rate in mm/rev,
Ra is the surface finish in ␮m and Á is the viscosity in mPa S.
5. Results and discussions
5.1. Performance of coconut oil with respect to surface
roughness and tool wear
The technological tests to assess the performance of cutting
fluids were carried out on a turning process with recording of
the important observations such as, cutting forces and wear
of tools, temperature of work piece and tool insert, chip shape
and color of chip, surface quality obtained and vibrations of

7. 906 journal of materials processing technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 900–909
Fig. 4 – Microphotographs of tool wear. Machining condition: Vc, 38.95 m/min; d, 0.5 mm and f, 0.25 mm/rev.
machine tool, cutting tool and work piece. In this work, only
two parameters namely tool wear and surface roughness was
considered to understand the performance of coconut oil as a
metal working fluid when machining Stainless steel AISI 304.
From the ANOVA table for surface roughness, it was found
that feed rate (61.54%) is the most significant parameter, which
affects the surface roughness of AISI 304 material while turn-
ing. The surface roughness variation at different feed rates
was compared for various cutting oils. Experiments were con-
ducted by varying the feed rate, keeping the other parameters
namely cutting speed and depth of cut constant at 90 m/min
and 1 mm, respectively for each oil individually and graph was
plotted between feed rate and surface roughness. Fig. 1 shows
the plot between the feed rate and surface roughness obtained
during the turning process in the presence of each cutting
fluid. It was observed that the surface roughness increases as
the feed rate increases and the surface roughness on the work
piece is less in the case of coconut oil at all the feed rates. As
the feed rate is increased from 0.1 mm/rev to 0.355 mm/rev,
it is observed that soluble oil starts off with a lower surface
roughness almost equivalent to that of coconut oil. But as the
feed rate increases, the increase in surface roughness value is
high in the case of soluble oil and straight cutting oil. Coconut
oil gives better surface finish at every feed rate and the sur-
face roughness obtained with coconut oil is much lower than
that obtained with other cutting fluids. Further experiments
were carried out by varying all the three cutting parameters for
each cutting fluids and the process parameter values (surface
roughness and tool wear) were recorded. From the recorded
values Figs. 2 and 3 were plotted between surface roughness
Vs feed rate and tool wear Vs cutting speed. From the graphs
it is being inferred that for any combination of cutting param-

8. journal of materials processing technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 900–909 907
Figs. 5–10 – Surface plots, Ra: surface roughness, Vb: flank wear, d: depth of cut, Vc: cutting speed and f: feed rate.
eters coconut oil always outperform the other two cutting
fluids.
5.2. Microscopic study of tool wear occurring on
carbide tool
The extent of flank wear is considered a dependable criterion
for judging the life of the cutting tool. In case of carbide tools,
through proper alloying of tungsten carbide with titanium and
tantalum carbides, sufficient resistance to crater is obtained
so that most tools do not fail by cratering, before a reasonable
amount of flank wear is obtained on the flank of the tool. The
flank wear can be more easily observed and measured than
other types of wear and it is relatively easy to predict. The
development of flank wear initially involves a high rate fol-
lowed by a more or less linear trend and finally rises rapidly

9. 908 journal of materials processing technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 900–909
when the amount of wear crosses beyond the critical value.
To understand more about the tool wear the microphotograph
of inserts were observed using Carl Zeiss optical microscope,
having magnification range of 500×. The flank was developed
while machining at certain cutting parameters (cutting speed:
38.95 m/min, depth of cut: 0.5 mm and feed rate: 0.25 mm/rev)
in the presence of coconut oil is shown in the microphotograph
(Fig. 4). And for the same cutting condition, the microphoto-
graph obtained on the insert when the other two cutting fluids
were used was also presented.
The microphotograph taken at 100× and 200× shows the
flank wear caused while machining at lower cutting speed.
The figure shows the tool tip where the maximum wearing had
occurred. In the case of coconut oil, the tool wear is consider-
ably less when compared to soluble oil and straight cutting oil
at lower cutting speed. Moreover, the viscosity of coconut oil
is more than that of soluble oil and less than that of straight
cutting oil, which favors easy flow of cutting fluid at minimal
oil condition. This enables the reduction of friction between
the tool and work piece, and easy removal of heat developed
at the interface. The heat removal at lower cutting speed gives
coconut oil a considerable advantage than that of soluble oil
and straight cutting oil. At lower speeds, coconut oil yields
lower wear and produces good surface finish when compared
to other cutting fluids.
5.3. Surface plots
A graphical analysis was done on the observed values using
Minitab software. The response surface plots obtained for each
process parameter with respect to the cutting parameters is
being presented. Figs. 5–10 show the estimated response of
surface roughness and tool wear for the cutting parameters
namely cutting speed, depth of cut and feed rate. Fig. 5 shows
the estimated response of surface roughness for the corre-
sponding cutting speed and depth of cut. It is seen that cutting
speed has significant effect on surface roughness. As has been
previously pointed out, this figure shows cutting speed around
80 m/min gives the lowest surface finish. Ra value is almost
constant for lower depth of cut, but the increase is seen for
higher values. Fig. 6 shows the estimated response of surface
roughness for the corresponding cutting speed and feed rate.
From the graph, it is seen that feed rate has the most sig-
nificant effect on surface roughness and its variation is very
high when compared to other parameters. Fig. 7 shows the
estimated response of surface roughness for the correspond-
ing feed rate and depth of cut. It is established that feed rate
has the highest impact on surface roughness. Fig. 8 shows
the estimated response of tool wear for the corresponding
cutting speed and feed rate. Initially, the tool wear increases
slightly with the increase in cutting speed and it remains con-
stant for cutting speed around 60 m/min. Beyond that, tool
wear increases linearly with the increase in cutting speed.
Fig. 9 shows the estimated response of tool wear for the cor-
responding cutting speed and depth of cut. From the graph,
it is confirmed that depth of cut has the least significance
on tool wear and cutting speed has its domination on tool
wear over feed rate and depth of cut. Fig. 10 shows the esti-
mated response of tool wear for the corresponding feed rate
and depth of cut. For higher values of feed rate and depth of
cut, the tool wear is considerably high and it is constant for
lower values.
6. Conclusions
Experiments involving cemented carbide tool inserts and
AISI 304 stainless steel work material under varying machin-
ing parameters and with three different cutting fluids were
performed. Cutting fluids were considered as important
parameters in the machining process along with cutting
speed, feed rate and depth of cut. An analysis of variance
(ANOVA) was made and it was found that feed rate has
greater influence on surface roughness (61.54% contribution)
and cutting speed has greater influence on tool wear (46.49%
contribution). Further it was found that cutting fluid has some
considerable influence on both surface roughness and tool
wear. Effectiveness of the cutting fluids in reducing the tool
wear and improving the surface finish was found by compar-
ing the relative performance. In general, coconut oil was found
to be a better cutting fluid than the conventional mineral oils
in reducing the tool wear and surface roughness. Surface plots
were drawn between the various process parameters so as
to understand more about their individual relationship and
relative contribution to surface roughness and flank wear.
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