Author : Samatham Madhukar, Aitha Shravan, Pakka Vidyanand and G.Sreeram Reddy

Cooling lubricants and coolant systems have various tasks in metal cutting. Primarily they conduct heat and reduce friction. They ensure a uniform temperature of the work piece and tool and help to maintain tolerances. Supply, preparation, and disposal of cooling lubricants can cause considerable costs. Additionally, these substances pollute the environment. Therefore, it is worthwhile to think about alternatives. A possible solution in searching for the optimum lubrication system is minimum quantity lubrication (MQL), which is becoming increasingly important. This is an alternative between wet and dry machining. In the case of minimum quantity lubrication, the quantity of the applied lubricant is reduced to a minimum. The maximum volume flow rate with MQL is less than 50 ml/hour. Compared to conventional wet machining, where up to 12,000 liters of coolant is used per hour and must be reconditioned again, the user of the MQL system does not need a higher quantity than a few milliliters. The optimum lubrication considerably reduces the frictional heat. With MQL, the machining costs can be reduced considerably. The environment is also protected and possible health risks for the machine operator are reduced. The current paper reviews different types of MQL systems, comparison of MQL coolant system with conventional coolant systems, applications and advantages of MQL coolant system

Keywords: Minimum quantity lubrication (MQL), machining, coolant system

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.6, No.5 (Oct-2016)