The Role of Surfactant Structure on the Development of a Sustainable and Effective Cutting Fluid for Machining Titanium Alloys

Metals

Diego Carou¹  Elisabet Benedicto²  EvaMaría Rubio²  Coral Santacruz³ 

[1] Department of Design in Engineering, University of Vigo, Campus As Lagoas, 32004 Ourense, Spain;Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering School, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), St/Juan del Rosal 12, E28040 Madrid, Spain;Department of Surface Chemistry, Leitat Technological Center, C/Innovació 2, E08225 Terrassa, Spain;

关键词: metalworking fluid;    tool wear;    tool life;    Ti6Al4V;    surfactant;   

DOI  :  10.3390/met10101388

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

In cutting operations of titanium alloys, most of the problems are related to the high consumption of cutting tools due to excessive wear. An improvement of metalworking fluid (MWF) technology would increase the productivity, sustainability, and quality of machining processes by lubricating and cooling. In this research article, the authors varied the surfactant’s charge, the hydrocarbon chain length, and the ethoxylation degree. Surfactants were dispersed at 1.2 mM in water and trimethylolpropane oleate to produce water-based MWF. Infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy and total organic carbon analysis were used to study the influence of surfactant structure on the film forming ability of the emulsion and performance was studied on Ti6Al4V using tapping torque test. The results showed that by changing the molecular structure of the surfactant, it is possible to vary the affinity between the ester and the substrate and reach an optimal combination, which improves the formation of a tribofilm. The mixture with anionic surfactants has good tribology performance, while non-ionic surfactants shorten the tool’s life. Moreover, the increase in the hydrocarbon chain length and the number of ethoxylations of surfactants promotes the adhesion of ester onto the metal surface, improving the lubricity properties of environmentally friendly MWF.

【 授权许可】

Unknown