Advanced Mill Applied Lubrication to
enhance Formability and to reduce Tool
pollution
First author: Chiel Dane
Other author(s): Romke Boterman, Matthijs Toose, Basjan Berkhout
The steel industry in Europe is frequently requested by the automotive industry to supply
trial coils with new types of mill applied lubricants. Pre-applied lubricants, so-called
Prelubes, provide temporary corrosion protection and lubrication during press forming
operations. Although a uniform layer can be realized directly after electrostatic
application, the distribution of the layer thickness changes during coiling and storage due
to migration of Prelube from the centre of the coil towards the edges. The resulting nonuniform layer thickness across coil width gives rise to uncontrolled run-in of the blank
due to fatty edges or to splitting as a result of too less oil amount in the middle of the coil.
The layer distribution with Hotmelt, which is more or less solid just after electrostatic
application, remains quite stable even after long storage but loses its initial advantage at
tool temperatures above the melting point. Unfortunately, the anti-migration benefit of
Hotmelts do not justify the costs connected to apply them. To close the gap between the
press performance improvement of less migrating Hotmelts and actual Prelubes, the oil
industry has developed so-called second generation Prelubes (Prelube2).
Prelubes2 have a much higher viscosity than first generation Prelubes but have more
additives to enhance lubricity. In this work we will demonstrate that Prelubes2 still
migrate in the coil, but might perform better in deep drawing operations than first
generation Prelubes. Still Prelube2 on Hot Dip Galvanised turned out not sufficient
enough to replace Electrogalvanised Prephospated (EG-p) steel. In order to reduce tool
pollution and thereby pimple defects and galling Tata Steel is developing an advanced
mill applied lubricant which gives a boost to the lubrication to replace EG-p. The
application of this Boosterlube on Serica® will be able to replace EG-p to press all body
in white parts, even having sharp designlines.
Title:
Advanced Mill Applied Lubrication to enhance Formability and to reduce Tool pollution
Author
Chiel Dane, Romke Boterman, Matthijs Toose, Basjan Berkhout