Evaluation of crude watermelon oil as lubricant in cylindrical turning of AISI 1525 steel employing Taguchi and grey relational analyses techniques

Cutting fluids are used for cooling and lubricating the machining area of components used in manufacturing industries such as aerospace, automotive, petroleum, and heavy machinery. Mineral oils derived from petroleum are commonly utilized as cutting fluids. Mineral oil is hazardous to the health of workers and damaging to the environment. There is a need for a substitute for mineral oil. Vegetable oil is increasingly being used as a cutting fluid. Vegetable oils are easily accessible and have benefits including excellent biodegradability, resistance to fire, low humidity rates, and a low coefficient of expansion under heat. This study adopts watermelon oil as a lubricant in MQL machining of AISI 1525 steel using tungsten tools. In the experiment, the feed rate, depth of cut (DC) and spindle speed were varied using the Taguchi L9 orthogonal array. Grey relational analysis was conducted to obtain optimum cutting parameters for surface roughness, machine vibration, and cutting temperature. Hardness and microstructural analysis of the workpiece were also conducted. Results showed that vegetable oil performed much more effectively than mineral oil in most experiments. The DC was shown to be the most efficient cutting parameter after applying ANOVA analysis based on the parameters that were evaluated. Additionally, models for cutting temperature, machine vibration, and surface roughness values have been developed with accuracy between 69.73 % and 99.05 %. The hardness of the workpiece increases with an increase in diameter, which was attributed to the increase in the steel rod (workpiece) cross-sectional area and the likelihood of a more uniform stress distribution. Moreover, finer grain sizes were observed at 70 mm diameter, with the predominant presence of pearlites. These characteristics were reportedly beneficial to the material's toughness and strength.