Investigation of the Performance of Vegetable Lubricants in Cold Pressing

Abstract

Cold pressing is a plastic shaping method used for materials to gain superior mechanical properties. In this shaping method, surface quality is of utmost importance. Lubricant surface quality is one of the highly effective parameters in achieving the desired surface quality in the pressing process. Recently, considering sustainability and human health, vegetable-based lubricants have come to the forefront and are open to further development. In this study, the performances of vegetable-based lubricants in cold pressing were evaluated by determining and assessing the roughness transfer ratios from the press tool to the sheet material. Vegetable-based lubricants such as sunflower oil, soybean oil, canola oil, and palm oil were compared with motor oil for the purpose of comparison and were evaluated under dry conditions. The conditions where motor oil was used as the lubricant showed the lowest roughness transfer ratio of 73%, indicating the best performance. Palm oil followed with a roughness transfer ratio of 76%, sunflower oil with 78%, soybean oil with 79%, and finally, canola oil with 82%. Among the four different vegetablebased lubricants used in the study, palm oil exhibited the highest performance, while canola oil had the lowest performance. Although the lubrication performance of vegetable-based lubricants is weaker compared to synthetic-based lubricants, it was concluded that they have potential for improvement and can be used as lubricants by addressing their weaknesses in the manufacturing processes.