Cold extrusion using biodegradable oil as lubricant: experimental and simulation analysis

Abstract

Due to various growing concerns on environmental damage caused using non-biodegradable mineral oils, there is a growing awareness globally of the need to promote the use of renewable materials such as vegetable oils. Because of their unique features, such as being non-toxic and biodegradable, vegetable oils have the potential to replace mineral oils as a lubricant. Lubrication is seen as important for controlling the wear and friction of the interacting surfaces as well as in reducing the load applications during the metal forming process, this research had therefore attempted to study the possibility of using palm oil (RBD palm stearin and RBD palm kernel) as a bio-lubricant by benchmarking their performances against those of the additive-free paraffinic mineral oil VG460. This experiment had utilised a cold work plane strain extrusion apparatus with a pair of taper die and a symmetrical work piece (billet) that was constructed from the A1100 annealed pure aluminium with a 5mm radius of deformed area. By comparing the friction behaviours at certain stroke levels and the effects from the billet’s effective stresses experiment with the simulated FEM results of high extrusion loads, the palm kernel and palm stearin were found to have not resulted in any severe wear on the product surface hence, indicating their potential to be used as a mineral oil replacement.