Characterizations, Development and Performance Assessment of Sorrel (Hibiscus Sabdariffa) Seed Oil Based Cutting Fluid in Milling of Low Carbon Steel (Published)
The research titled characterizations, development and performance assessment of sorrel (Hibiscus sabdariffa) seed oil based cutting fluid in milling of low carbon steel considered locally grown and readily available sorrel seed (SS) from which sorrel seed oil (SSO) was obtained. The seed oil was extracted by soxhlet method using n-hexane, it was characterized and was used as base oil to develop (formulate) cutting fluid that was used in milling of AISI 1028 steel. To achieve that, the oil was first mixed with water in an appropriate ratio separately. The oil- water mixture was finally blended with the necessary additives to obtain desired cutting fluid-sorrel seed oil cutting fluid (SSOCF)).The feasibility of the oil to serve as cutting fluid was evaluated relative to that of a mineral oil based cutting fluid (control fluid). The workpiece was machined with the prescribed machining parameters based on ASTM standard. During machining, the tool-work interface temperatures were recorded using infra-red gun thermometer. The performances in terms of heat removal from the tool-work interface was best achieved by SSOCF being local vegetable plant oil cutting fluid attaining a temperature of 29.7oC at the highest cutting speed (CS) of 200mpm.Also the same SSOCF proved to be the safest from fire hazard owing to higher flash point standing at 278oC. The local vegetable plant oil have the least tendencies to corrode workpiece surface having the acid value of 1.470mg/KOH/g as against that of the control fluid of 7.876mg/KOH/g. Similarly, SSOCF has a good viscosity at 40oC and 100oC being 8.000mm2/s and 3.760mm2/s. Besides, the SSOCF gave the least surface roughness of 3.6987µm relative to that resulting from milling with the control fluid standing at 4.5673µm. From the foregoing, it can be concluded that the local vegetable plant seed oil (SSO) is feasible for the development of cutting fluid for machining and thus could conveniently substitute the conventional (mineral oil based) cutting fluid for machining operation. It is recommended that more efforts should be put into researches in the use of vegetable plant seed (bio seed) oils for cutting fluids development since they have been proved to have good prospects.
Keywords: Low Carbon Steel, characterizations of oils, cutting fluid, milling operation, performance parameters and vegetable plant seed oil.