Minimum quantity lubrication machining nickel base alloy: a comprehensive review

Nickel-based alloys have great application value in aerospace, biomedical industry, chemical industry, and other fields. However, nickel-based alloys are known to be difficult to process, which will generate a lot of heat and friction during processing, which limits the application range of nickel-based alloys. Therefore, a large amount of cutting fluid needs to be used during processing, and the cutting fluid will cause harm to human health and the environment. In order to solve these problems, scholars proposed to use the minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) to replace the conventional flood cooling lubrication technique. Recently, many papers have proposed to use MQL for lubrication /cooling in the processing of nickel-based alloys. However, few studies have approached this topic comprehensively. To bridge this gap, this study conducts a comprehensive literature review of the progress made in the processing of nickel-based alloys using various MQL methods. It should be noted that these studies are divided into four categories: vegetable oil-based MQL, cryogenic cooling-based MQL, solid lubricant-based MQL, and electrostatic atomization-based MQL. It is crucial to compare the advantages of these cooling and lubricating technologies in machining nickel-based alloys, analyze their experimental results, and assess their impact on machining quality and tool wear. This review reveals that compared to traditional MQL, vegetable oil-based MQL is more energy-saving and environmentally friendly, resulting in approximately 30% improvement in surface quality and a 50% reduction in tool wear. The addition of solid lubricants to vegetable oil further enhances its lubrication performance. Cryogenic cooling-based MQL enables the attainment of finer grains and smaller sawtooth chips. Electrostatic atomization MQL, by altering the atomization process of traditional MQL, produces more uniform droplets, leading to a 42.4% reduction in tool wear and a 47% improvement in machined surface quality. The purpose of this paper is to help researchers identify existing gaps and to enable MQL to improve the processing quality and application range of nickel-based alloys. Finally, the present technical challenges and future research directions are put forward.