Tool Life in the Turning of Oil Country Tubular Goods Using Eco-Friendly Lubri-Cooling

The global demand for fossil fuels has driven the oil and gas industry over the past decades, justifying the need for exploration at increasingly greater ocean depths in harsh environments. Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) pipes are used in the drilling, casing, and production stages of wells in the oil and gas industry, and their connections are finished through turning and threading processes. Considering the negative environmental and health impacts of mineral and vegetable-based fluids, the objective of this study is to evaluate alternative lubrication-cooling methods in turning of OCTG. Turning tests were conducted on seamless L80 API 5CT steel pipes using vegetable-based cutting fluid emulsion as the traditional method, cold air supplied through a vortex system, minimum quantity lubrication (MQL), and cold air combined with MQL. Tool temperature, cutting forces, and wear were measured. The non-parametric Durbin’s rank sum test for balanced incomplete blocks was used to compare the methods, along with the Conover test. Scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectroscopy were employed to characterize the tool wear mechanisms. Results showed that when used individually, the alternative methods were not as efficient as the abundant cutting fluid. However, the combination of cold air with MQL demonstrated comparable performance.