Performance of Strong Alkali Ion Water in Cutting and Grinding Applications

Abstract

Recent years, use of the strong alkali ion water produced by electrolyzing high purity water (RO water) with addition of a small amount of electrolyte (potassium carbonate) is becoming widely used as a substitutable cleaning liquid in place of organic solvent which is said to exert a bad influence on the environment. The authors have been conducting a research to apply this strong alkali ion water (pH12 or so) to a working fluid for material removal processing. This is to cope with various problems relating to the existing water-soluble working fluid such as coolant putridity and the associated deterioration of factory environments and increased disposal costs of working fluids as well as to improve machining efficiency and tool life. In this study, the authors would like to describe how the working fluid consisting of water-soluble lubricant diluted with the strong alkali ion water contributes to an improvement of the factory environment and verify experimentally that the said fluid could improve the tool life by 1.2 to several times. In addition, a factor contributing to the improvement of material removal characteristics has been found to be the fact that the friction resistance of the said fluid containing the strong alkali ion water is as low as 2/3~1/2 of that of the fluid diluted with the city water.