Evaluation of lubricants for minimum quantity lubrication

Minimum Quantity Lubrication (MQL) is a new method of applying metal removal fluids (MRF) during the machining process in which a fine mist of oil is applied instead of a flood of coolant. Since only a small amount of fluid is used, the properties of fluids are essential to the machining performance. A study on commercial MQL fluids was carried out to determine which property or bench tests are important in predicting the machining performance of those fluids. The results would help the selection of lubricants without going through extensive machining tests. For the nanolubricants, there was no obvious improvement in either thermal conductivity or lubricity from the individual tests. Nanolubricants led to a slight lowering of wettability due to the increasing viscosity, but it was not reflected in a change in machining performance. There was slight or no improvement compared to the base lubricant. Although increasing nanoparticle concentration may help enhance the performance, it also increases the risk of damaging the machine or tool and contaminating the working environment. The most significant improvement observed with nanolubricants was in EP properties. Nanolubricants should be able to provide superior lubricity under boundary condition machining. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 2010 Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Annual Meeting (Las Vegas, NV 5/16-20/2010).

Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Annual Meeting and Exhibition 2010

Evaluation of lubricants for minimum quantity lubrication Conference Paper