Capillary penetration mechanism and oil mist concentration of Al2O3 nanoparticle fluids in electrostatic minimum quantity lubrication (EMQL) milling

A green manufacturing technology named “electrostatic minimum quantity lubrication (EMQL)” with water-based Al2O3 nanoparticle fluids as cutting fluids was developed in order to improve the cutting property and minimize oil mist concentration during the machining process. The capillary penetration mechanism, oil mist concentration, and heat transfer property of Al2O3 fluid EMQL were investigated. The cutting performance of Al2O3 fluid EMQL and traditional minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) was compared. The results showed that EMQL could improve the penetrability and heat transfer capacity of the lubricant effectively. Compared with Al2O3 fluid MQL and oil-based MQL, Al2O3 fluid EMQL reduced oil mist concentration and cutting temperature remarkably and showed similar cutting performances compared with the oil-based MQL. The excellent performance of this water-based Al2O3 fluid EMQL technology was mainly due to that EMQL could promote a further penetration of the charged Al2O3 nanofluid droplets into the cutting region, which thus reduced the friction force, and the tool durability was maintained obviously and finally presented better machining performance.