Impact of compressed air pressure on geometric structure of AISI 1045 steel surface after turning with the use of MQCL method

MQL (Minimum Quantity Lubrication) and MQCL (Minimum Quantity Cooling Lubrication) methods become alternative solutions for dry machining and deluge cooling conditions. Due to a growing interest in MQCL method, this article discusses the impact of compressed air pressure, which is one of the basic parameters of generating emulsion mist used in MQCL method, on the geometric structure of the surface after turning AISI 1045 carbon steel. This paper presents the results of measurements of machined surface roughness parameters Ra, Rz, RSm as well as roughness profiles and Abbot-Firestone curves. It was found that the increase in the compressed air pressure from 1 to 7 MPa causes an increase in the roughness of the machined surface (the lowest values were obtained at a pressure of 1 MPa). An increase of emulsion mass flow rate also causes an increase in the value of selected parameters of roughness of the machined surface.