Tapping operations on hardened steels have always been a great challenge. Dry machining and two cooling systems were used when tapping hardened AISI H13 (53 HRC). Embedded thermocouples were used for temperature measurement close to the thread diameter in the radial and axial direction. A FEA model was used to evaluate the heat "Q", and coefficient of convection "h". The lowest temperature peak occurred with the flooded system, followed by the MQL, and dry condition. The heat and coefficient of convection increased when using the flooded system, followed by the MQL, compared to the dry condition. Those values were also in accordance with early published works, using different techniques.
tapping; Minimum Quantity of Lubricant (MQL); Finite Element Analysis (FEA); steel AISI H13
