An Integrated Approach to Lubricant Development in Cold Forging

Abstract

Lubrication plays a very important role in the metal forming industry. Almost every metal forming process requires some form of lubrication or the other in order to obtain the desired component. Presently, various kinds of lubricants are being used in industry for different processes based on the lubricant properties and the process requirements.

One of the primary objectives of this study is to establish a lubricant development methodology which is based on a thorough understanding of the lubrication mechanisms involved and the metal forming process itself.

Evaluating the performance of a lubricant is an essential part of the development process. Various standard tribological tests employed in industry were used in this study. This involved both experimental and finite element analysis of the tests. Certain critical tribological parameters were identified for evaluating the performance of the lubricants and these were recorded for further analysis.

Another important objective of this study is to develop a simulation databank which would contain the finite element simulations for the major forging components used in industry. The creation of this databank is an essential part of the proposed integrated approach to lubricant development. This databank will enable lubricant developers to optimize their product for particular forging applications.

A case study was undertaken to prove the usefulness of the integrated approach. The new technique was applied to the development of a new polymer based environment friendly lubricant. The target process for this lubricant was tube drawing and hence it was necessary to get a lubricant with optimum properties for this process. The required performance parameters were identified through the critical tribo-mechanical parameters.

Accordingly, the appropriate tribological tests were selected for lubricant evaluation. Initially, a set of eleven lubricant formulations were taken for testing, each with a slightly different chemical formulation. In order to narrow down the suitable lubricant formulation, a low severity friction test such as the ring test was performed. Once the better performing formulations were identified, a more severe friction test was employed to narrow down on the best possible lubricant formulation. During the entire process, the lubricant developer modified the chemical formulations slightly based on the test results. The result of this was improved performance in the lubricants.