Investigation of technological properties of cutting fluid with liquid crystal additive

Abstract

An experimental investigation of the performance of water-miscible mineral oil-based cutting fluid with twisted nematic liquid crystal (cholesteryl stearate) additive was carried out. The improved cutting fluid was applied in external turning operation in the low pressure flood application system of the lathe. Experimental investigation was carried out by means of two-factor second-order full factorial design. The concentration of liquid crystal in cutting fluid (0.1-0.5% by coolant volume) and cutting speed (85-267 m/min) were chosen as variable factors. The average roughness Ra of the turned surface was chosen as response variable. Upon statistical processing of the experiment results the regression equation describing the dependence of the average roughness of turned surface on controllable factors was obtained. On the purpose to evaluate the effect of use the liquid crystalline additive the additional experiments with additive-free cutting fluid were also carried out.