Evaluation of RBD palm stearin as alternative lubricant for cold forward extrusion process

Abstract

A rapid growth in awareness level over environmental problems have brought researchers to find a substitute lubricant to reduce the use of mineral based lubricants. In this paper, the lubrication performance of RBD palm stearin was evaluated in order to be utilized as alternative lubricant for metal forming lubricant. Commercial paraffinic mineral oil VG460 and VG95 were used for comparison purposes. The experiment was conducted using cold work extrusion apparatus that consists of taper die (made of tool steel SKD11) and a pair of billet (made of pure aluminium A1100). The results obtained from these experiments showed that RBD palm stearin can reduce extrusion load, produce a lower surface roughness value and have smooth surface profile compared to commercial paraffinic mineral oils. It is demonstrated that RBD palm stearin have promising lubrication performance and can be considered as alternative lubricant in metal forming process.