Green cutting of metals (RESERVED)
Areas
Materials, Mechanics and electronics
Fields of use
Manufacturing processes, cutting processes, cryogenic cutting
Current state of technology
Prototype developed and tested
Intellectual property
Patent pending, appliction no. LU101232
Developed by
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Reference
821-4/2019
Contact
Download PDF
- TO-Green-Cutting-of-Metals_EN.pdf (pdf, 577 KB)
Background
Cutting processes result in high thermal and mechanical loads of cutting tools. As a sustainable alternative to conventional oil emulsions, nitrogen can be used as a refrigerant; but nitrogen in gaseous form has poor lubricating properties.
Description of invention
The invention is a continuous liquid phase supply system for the cryogenic medium with phase separator that supplies the liquid phase to the cutting zone while the separated gaseous phase is used to isolate the flow of the liquid phase and create an inert atmosphere in the rigid cutting zone.
Main advantages
The advantage of this invention is, in particular, the possibility of a local supply of a fully liquid phase (and consequently a higher lubricating effect) of nitrogen, with smaller volume flows.
Other advantages of the invention are:
- better cooling and lubricating effect,
- more localized supply of liquid nitrogen,
- economical usage of liquid nitrogen (lowe consumption),
- improving the performance of the cutting process (longer tool life);
- improving product performance (improved integrity of the treated surface)