There are several manufacturing techniques like bending, deep drawing, drilling, grinding, milling, punching and cutting used for shaping metals. The productivity of any manufacturing process will depend on the tool life and surface integrity of the finished work piece. Therefore, metalworking fluids (MWF’s) are used in the process to reduce tool wear and improve the surface finish of the work piece. This is due to the performance of MWF’s as lubricants, coolants and carriers of the wear debris.
Chlorine-based additives are very popular among the lubricating additives used in MWF’s because of its wide range of operating temperatures; however, they are dangerous to our health and environment. Friction and wear test instruments play an important role in finding alternatives for chlorine-based additives. Lab-scale instruments like the Ducom Four Ball Tester (FBT-3) and Reichert Tester are widely used in screening lubricant additives. Although the FBT-3 and Reichert cannot reproduce real-life conditions during manufacturing, they enable the adsorption-dominated lubrication mechanism present in the real process. Moreover, they are quick, reliable and reproducible.