Synthetic water-mix cutting fluids can be characterised as follows:-
1) Grinding fluids
Boron-amine based products are the industry standard for grinding offering
low cost and high corrosion inhibition. The main problems associated with this
approach is sticky deposits and foaming tendency is higher than with more
modern options.
Boron-free based products offer the potential for cleaner operation, better
hard water stability and with some chemistry ultra low misting and foaming
tendency.
Added lubricity products offer enhanced grinding where increase stock
removal or surface finish are required. These products contain specialist
water soluble lubricant additives to enhance performance. For most grinding
operations small amounts of additive are required, whereas for creep-feed
grinding a large amount of additives are required and synergistic blends of
additives are used.
2) Cutting fluids
Synthetic cutting fluids have been around for a number of years now and
technology has advanced significantly in that time.
Again there is typically a choice of boron-amine, or boron-free chemistry
and the advantages of boron-free are again the lower levels of sticky
deposits, the better hard water stability and the capability to design
products with lower air-entrapment and foam. The additives to give excellent
cutting performance are now well know and the key is to tailor the required
properties with the correct additives.
Current challenges in synthetic cutting fluids is the desire to use this
type of fluid on white and yellow metals, particularly aerospace and magensium
alloys to gain the benefits in cleanliness without the problems of work-piece
staining which is so often encountered.
Castrol
is a leader in synthetic water-mix fluid technology, but has the disadvantage
of high cost and large minimum order size. For technology without the expense
there are a few independents which can offer products like
QSCD Ltd
