Dry and Cryogenic Machining: Comparison from the Sustainability Perspective

Modern manufacturing processes continue to demand high quality products and processes at reduced costs and with greater environmental compliance. This has led to a critical consideration of the use of conventional cutting fluids used in most machining processes. Continued use of cutting fluids poses major problems as they are hazardous for the operating personnel on the shop floor. They are also carcinogenic, harmful to the environment and cause high costs. The major focus of the proposed paper is the analysis of experimental work on machining under dry and cryogenic conditions in turning of Al 7075–T651 alloy to achieve environmental and economic benefits and improved surface integrity and fatigue life of the machined product, thus aiming at a more sustainable product. In particular, a preliminary evaluation of the fatigue life of the component is presented based on a microstructure-based model, which varies with the used manufacturing process. The overall results show that cryogenic cooling has the potential to improve the product and process through its superior performance in terms of the machined surface and sub-surface characteristics and the related environmental and economic performance.