Development of a Novel Green Lubricant for Sheet Metal Forming Operation

The main purpose of the present investigation is to analyze a novel, green, and petroleum-free lubricant that is produced by mixing two environmentally benign components—canola oil and boric acid powder. To study the influence of boric acid crystal size and volume ratio on the proposed lubricants performance, computerized pin on disk experiments were conducted with spherical copper pins (radius 6.5 mm) and aluminum disks (Ra = 1.35μm). Friction coefficient measurements were taken at more than twenty distinct operating conditions while varying the lubrication condition (unlubricated, boric acid, canola oil, boric acid/canola oil mixture), boric acid volume fraction (3.5%, 7%, 10.5 and 21%), and boric acid crystal size (0–100 microns, 100–150 microns, 150–180 microns, 180–350 microns and 350–710 microns). Based on the experiments, it was determined that a 7% by volume boric acid powder in canola oil with 350–700 micron particles was the optimum green lubricant for minimizing the friction at the conditions tested. In addition, the results indicated that the boric acid/canola oil lubricant demonstrated excellent potential for use in industrial applications such as sheet metal stamping.