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Cutting fluid is an indispensable "seasoning" in the metal cutting processing industry. It plays a good role in cooling, lubricating, cleaning and rust prevention in metal cutting processing, which can effectively extend the service life of cutting tools, reduce production costs and improve product quality. Water-based metalworking fluids have superior cooling performance and lower costs compared to oil-based products, and their usage ratio has been increasing year by year. Therefore, green and environmentally friendly water-based processing fluids have become the choice of the vast majority of metal processing enterprises.
At present, most users of water-based cutting systems in the market use tap water or groundwater with a high mineral content. Coupled with the continuous release of free calcium and magnesium ions at the metal processing site, they are prone to form insoluble soaps with the main emulsifiers, fatty acids, oleic acid and other additives in the system, which greatly affects the service life of the system. Therefore, when developing a cutting fluid formula, factors such as the customer's working conditions and regional water quality should be taken into account to enhance the hard water stability of the formula. On the one hand, the content of additives such as fatty acid soaps and sulfonates can be reduced in the formula; on the other hand, anti-hard water agents can be added to enhance the stability of the formula.
Selection of anti-hard water agents
Most of the commonly used anti-hard water agents at present are chelating agents, such as ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and its sodium salt, which can be used to chelate divalent metal ions in the system, but their anti-hard water ability is relatively average. Today, I'm going to introduce another anti-hard water agent to you all - ether carboxylic acid.
As a modified product of fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether, oil alcohol/fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether carboxylic acid combines the performance characteristics of anionic and nonionic emulsifiers, and contains both polyoxyethylene groups and carboxyl groups. It reacts with alkali to form ether carboxylate, which can enhance the calcium soap dispersion ability and electrolyte stability of the formula in metal cutting fluid, effectively improving the stability of the cutting fluid.
The performance of ether carboxylic acids mainly depends on the type of alkyl group and the quantity of ethoxy (EO) groups. Alcohol ether carboxylic acids embed a certain number of hydrophilic EO groups on the hydrophilic carboxyl groups and hydrophobic long carbon chains, which overcomes the shortcomings of anionic surfactants' poor resistance to hard water and the calcium soap dispersion ability of nonionic surfactants. After the carboxyl group ionizes in water, it can capture calcium and magnesium ions in the system. Meanwhile, the EO group in the structure can disperse them well in the system, reducing soap precipitation. Generally speaking, as the amount of ethoxy (EO) increases, the dispersion ability of calcium soap also relatively improves, the foam increases, and the anti-rust performance will relatively decrease. Therefore, when choosing ether carboxylic acids, it is necessary to select the appropriate alcohol ether carboxylic acid based on the overall stability of the formula. Alcohol ether carboxylic acid is an excellent emulsifying and anti-hard water agent. Adding alcohol ether carboxylic acid to water-based processing liquid systems can significantly enhance the system's resistance to hard water and biodegradability.
Nowadays, metalworking fluid systems are developing towards the direction of long-term fluid replacement, which also indicates that the requirements for post-treatment processes are getting higher and higher. Kao ether carboxylic acid is committed to extending the service life of products, reducing the cost of waste liquid treatment, effectively prolonging the oil change cycle of metalworking fluids, and moving towards an environmentally friendly system.