Influence of Ion Accumulation on the Emulsion Stability and Performance of Semi-Synthetic Metalworking Fluids

Abstract

The metalworking industry is one of the largest in the United States. Although metalworking fluids (MWFs) are ubiquitous in manufacturing as coolants and lubricants, these emulsified fluids have a significant environmental impact over their life cycle. Accordingly, it has become necessary to better understand emulsion destabilization mechanisms that lead to MWF deterioration and disposal so that MWF formulations can be designed for increased longevity. This paper investigates the impact of pH and a wide range of hard water salts on MWF emulsion stability. While expected trends from the emulsion science literature are observed, it is shown that MWF destabilization can lead to an increase in the microbial load that the MWF can sustain while only slightly improving manufacturing performance as measured by the tapping torque test. Experimental observations also indicate that these trends are strongly correlated with increased emulsion particle size, regardless of whether increased particle size is achieved by aging, by reductions in pH, or by the addition of hard water salts. In MWF systems, these conditions typically result from the accumulation of divalent and trivalent cations over time due to hard water additions and exposure to metal workpieces and tools. While MWFs are formulated with EDTA to avoid emulsion destabilization due to cation accumulation, it is shown that EDTA can be ineffective or highly inefficient for this purpose due to direct interactions between EDTA and the MWF emulsifier system. Given the ineffectiveness of EDTA and commonly utilized MWF emulsifier systems to maintain stable emulsion size in the presence of high concentrations of hard water salts, a more effective and environmentally preferable technological change to the MWF formulation design is proposed and successfully demonstrated.