Study on sustainable milling performance of aluminum alloys with application of blended plant oil-based composite electrostatic spray lubrication

Abstract

The formidable challenges arise from castor oil's elevated viscosity and inadequate electrical conductivity, hampering the attainment of superior atomization, lubrication, and processing efficacy in composite electrostatic spray lubrication (CESL) applications. Adopting the blend of plant oils presents an effective solution to this issue. The type and ratio of plant oil blends and external/internal flow rate considerably affect the effectiveness of this solution. The appropriate above parameters can be expected to produce better performance than the optimal single plant oil. This work prepared the blends of castor oil with canola, soybean, palm, and sunflower oils in different volume ratios. The influence of CESL with blended plant oils on the milling performances of aluminum alloys was investigated at different external/internal flow rates. With both external and internal flow rates set to 6 ml/h, the blend of castor and palm oil with a volume ratio of 1:2 demonstrated the most significant decrease in milling forces and temperatures. When contrasting with pure LB2000 (the optimal single plant oil) and pure castor oil, the milling force, temperature, mean and maximum flank wear, and surface roughness under this condition were reduced by 1.40 %, 13.83 %, 23.83 %, 53.29 %, and 40.33 %, as well as 10.33 %, 20.71 %, 30.12 %, 57.75 %, and 47.99 %, respectively.