Performance evaluation of African star seed (chrysophyllum albidum) oil as a cutting lubricant in milling of ASTM A36 steel

Due to the harmful effects that conventional mineral oils have on human health and the environment, vegetable oils are becoming more and more dominant as cutting fluids in metal-cutting operations. In terms of cutting temperature and surface roughness, this paper examines the comparative advantages of minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) with a cutting fluid based on vegetable oil to fully dry machining and MQL machining with mineral oil during the milling of ASTM A36 steel. MQL machining with African star oil performed significantly better than dry cutting and mineral oil due to a significant drop in cutting zone temperature that enabled favourable chip-tool interaction. The findings also showed that the surface finish improved significantly with the use of African star oil as a lubricant. African star oil can undertake the same tasks as foreign-made lubricants when it comes to the milling of ASTM A36 steel, as evidenced by its efficiency when compared to the common cutting lubricant.