EW Summer 04: Blaser Vegetable Oil

	DIVISIONAL UPDATE
	Blaser Vegetable Oil-Based Coolants Improve Cutting Performance

By Ulrich Krahenbuhl, President
Blaser Swisslube Inc., Goshen, NY

Vegetable oil technology has been shown to deliver considerable productivity and longer tool life. With one customer, using vegetable oil-based coolant, drilling automotive gears resulted in a threefold increase in tool life. In another instance, producing titanium and stainless steel medical implants, vegetable oil technology made it possible to increase production volume by 10 percent and reduce tool costs by 50 percent. In yet another example, vegetable oil-based lubrication made possible a 15-fold increase in tool life while tapping steel parts for an automotive application.

Currently, mineral oil-based coolants continue to be the product of choice for a majority of users. About two-thirds of all coolant applications involve mineral oil-based products, about one-third of the applications use synthetic products, and just a few percent of the applications use vegetable oil-based coolants.

Vegetable oils have been recognized as having superb lubricating properties since the 1960’s. The process of making them stable and long lasting proved to be the challenging part. However, today a new generation of emulsifiers and stabilizing agents has made vegetable oil based coolants and cutting oil practical and cost effective for many machining applications

Lubricity Is the Key!

For a typical machining operation, the coolant’s lubrication and heat transfer abilities are crucial to achieving consistent success. Most of the heat generated during machining operations is a direct result of the friction between the cutting tool and the work piece surface. This friction, and the consequent heat generation has a direct negative effect on tool wear and work piece surface finishes.

The key to reducing friction is lubricity. The lubricating film layer provided by vegetable oils is quite strong and slippery. Vegetable oil coolant has lubricity that is approximately 40 percent higher than mineral oil and synthetics.

The highly lubricating properties of vegetable oil are made possible by the composition of the vegetable oil molecules. The vegetable oil’s “smart molecules.” are long, heavy, and dipolar in nature; that is, the ends of the molecules have opposing electrical charges.

The “polar heads” of the molecules have a great affinity for metal surfaces and attach themselves to the metal like little magnets. The result is a dense, but single layer alignment of vegetable oil molecules, perpendicular along the metal surface, that creates a thin, but strong, and durable film layer of lubricant (see Figure). This lubricating film gives the vegetable oil the greater capacity to absorb pressure created between the cutting tool and the work piece.

In contrast, mineral oil molecules are non-polar in nature. They form a random alignment along a metal surface, which yields a weaker layer of lubrication.

While the sizes of the ester molecules present in vegetable oil are larger and homogenous, the sizes of mineral oil molecules tend to vary in size. As a result, the physical properties — such as flash point and misting are better with vegetable oils. A vegetable oil plant tends to be a much cleaner shop because there is almost no smoke and misting.

Our tooling and accessory company, Machinery Tooling & Supply (MT&S) represents Blaser Vascomill cutting oils and Vasco 1000 water miscible products, and has on its staff one of the foremost coolant specialists in the U.S. in Andy Anderson (262.790.6080). If any of your customers are interested in exploring this new “old” technology for increased tool life and machining productivity, encourage them to talk to Andy or have Andy give them a call.

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