Influence of cryogenic cooling on surface grinding of stainless steel 316

•Cryogenic cooling is an effective coolant for grinding AISI 316 stainless steel.•Cryogenic grinding improves the quality of the product by reducing the high temperature at the wheel–work material interface.•The cryogenic cooling leading to fewer defects even at high feeds and work speed.•Cryogenic machining with liquid nitrogen is safe and environmentally friendly. The objective of the present investigation is to evaluate the improvements in the grinding force and surface roughness by the application of LN2 (liquid nitrogen) as a coolant in the cryogenic grinding process. Cryogenic machining is an environment concerned green manufacturing process. The grinding experiments were conducted on stainless steel 316 in three environments, namely, dry, wet and cryogenic cooling. The experimental results show that a reduction in the grinding zone temperature leads to excellent benefits in the machining performance. The cryogenic coolant offers 37% and 13% reduction in the grinding forces compared to dry and wet cooling. The surface roughness under cryogenic cooling is found to produce 59% and 32% lesser values and fewer defects, compared to surfaces ground with dry and wet cooling. The enhancements realized by the delivery pressure of the cryogen, with respect to the grinding forces, and surface roughness were also studied.