Tribological Properties and Machining Performance of Vegetable Oil Based Metal Working Fluids—A Review

Lubricants are playing an important role in world industrial and economic development, mainly by reducing friction and wear in mechanical contacts. The outlook for eco-friendly MWFs for the next decade is 15% of global volume share. Due to ever increasing demand for environmentally acceptable products suitable for use as MWFs, vegetable oil-based MWFs are drawing the attention of researchers across the globe. Owing to the desirable properties of vegetable oils as cutting fluids, vegetable oil-based cutting fluids play an important role in conserving the environment by means of sustainability. This paper focuses on various vegetable oil being developed to promote biodegradable MWFs across the world. The performance of vegetable oils with respect to cutting and thrust force, tool wear, temperature, surface roughness in turning, drilling, milling and grinding a wide variety of materials are studied and reported. The review also throws light on the tribological behavior of vegetable oils that influence the lubricity in Metal working process. The review reveals that vegetable oils offer an alternative, eco-friendly and sustainable MFWs for the future of manufacturing.