ENGINEERINGNET.EU -- Metalworking needs lubricants to prevent work pieces and tools from overheating and from excess wear.
Standard lubricants today are based on mineral oil. This has drawbacks: fossil mineral oils come from finite resources, transport relatively little heat away from the work piece, are harmful to health and are flammable. All of this calls for extreme technical efforts, for occupational safety, fire safety and disposal, for example.
The idea hatched by Andreas Malberg, Dr. Peter Eisner and Dr. Michael Menner from the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV in Freising sounds simple as well as surprising: lubricate with water, not oil. Michael Menner: “One surprising thing we found was that water is no worse a lubricant than oil, the key to it all being the additives.”
The researchers set about testing renewable raw materials such as celluloses, starches or bacterial polysaccharides and improving their use as lubricant additives. Their aim: to make water more viscous by adding biopolymers, so it lubricates better.
For the idea to become a marketable product, other partners were brought on board. The basic fluid made by the IVV, the viscous water, was then improved by adding water-soluble additives so it could be used as an anti-corrosion agent, for example. That‘s how it meets the requirements during processing: withstanding high temperatures and shearing stresses.
In addition to the significantly lower impact on the environment and the high raw material efficiency, the new lubricant also offers technological benefits. It reduces wear and prolongs tool life, for example. The processed components are also easier to clean. This cuts costs and improves the cost-efficiency of the entire production process.
Peter Eisner: “In principle, once thoroughly cleaned, the same machine tool circulation systems can be used.” In addition, the use of the aqueous lubricant improves occupational health and safety and hygiene: no formation of oil mists, addition of fewer biocides, it smells better and is gentler on the skin.
Dr. Peter Eisner, Dipl.-Ing. Andreas Malberg and Dr. Michael Menner will receive one of the 2012 Joseph-von-Fraunhofer awards.
(KV) (photo Fraunhofer)
