Development of Oil Free Lubricants for Cold Rolling of Low-Carbon Steel

Oil-in-water emulsions (O/W-emulsions) are generally used to lubricate the cold rolling process of low-carbon steel. Besides the obvious advantages of efficient lubrication and cooling of the process, there are also some disadvantages mainly related to emulsion bath maintenance, subsequent production steps and waste disposal. In some application areas, Oil Free Lubricants (OFL’s) have shown to be at least equally effective in decreasing friction and wear as conventional lubricants, while resulting in benefits related to waste disposal. In 2018 a project (acronym ‘RollOilFree’) was started with funding from the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS). The objective of this project was to develop an OFL as a lubricant for the cold rolling process of low-carbon steel and hot rolling of aluminium. A cold rolling lubricant can be evaluated based on many criteria; for some criteria the OFL even outperformed the oil-based emulsion, but it was found that for some rolling conditions the coefficient of friction with the OFL was still too high. In September 2023 a follow-up project, “ Transfer of aqueous oil free lubricants into stee l cold rolling practice ” (acronym ‘RollOilFreeII’) has begun, also in the RFCS-framework. This article briefly recapitulates the findings in the RollOilFree-project and describes the objectives and benefits of the RollOilFreeII-project. Furthermore, the main activities in the project will be discussed.