Selection of Cutting Inserts in Dry Machining for Reducing Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions

Manufacturing processes are responsible for climate change due to the emissions produced as result of energy consumption. This paper analyzes the influence of the cutting conditions and the characteristics of cutting tools on the energy required in machining processes and the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq) emissions generated per material removed ratio (MRR) in an effort to define common criteria for using cutting inserts in a sustainable manner. Consequently, four cutting inserts were evaluated during the turning of Ti6Al4V alloy. An experimental and statistical methodology that combined the orthogonal array L36, the signal-to-noise ratio under the “small is better” criterion of Taguchi, and a multifactor analysis of variance was used. The effects of the geometry, material and coating of the tool and the cutting conditions on the energy and the carbon footprint during the manufacturing process were analyzed. The results show that a high tool cutting length and a high cutting depth are significant common factors, whereas the coating-cutting depth and cutting length-cutting speed are significant common interactions for both the energy/MRR ratio and the CO2-eq emissions/MRR ratio, and the coating-cutting speed exhibits a significant interaction for emissions. The outcomes show that the lifespan of the tool has little influence on the total emissions, at the time that the methodology is able to identify the most appropriate manner to calculate energy.