DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A MODEL CUTTING FLUID DEVELOPED FROM SHEA BUTTER OIL

This research was carried out to develop a model cutting fluid from Shea Butter oil and evaluate its performance in relation to temperature and surface roughness when compared to a commercial cutting fluid. The effectiveness of the cutting fluid was evaluated on a mild steel using a turning operation on the lathe machine. Temperature variations during the turning operation were measured using an infra-red gun thermometer while surface roughness was evaluated by employing a surface roughness tester. In this work Taguchi method was used to guide the selection of machine parameters such as cutting speed (rev/min), feed rate (mm/rev), and depth of cut (mm). Using Minitab, the cutting temperature and resulting surface roughness were measured for both the developed cutting and commercial fluids. The results obtained for the average cutting temperature of ~ 30oC and overall surface roughness value of 0.32μm for shea butter oil show a significant difference from that of ~ 35oC and 0.47 μm respectively for commercial grade cutting fluids. These results show that the shea butter oil-based cutting fluid not only exhibits great potential but also surpasses the current capabilities of commercial cutting fluids in terms of its cooling and surface finishing performances.