Mineral Base Lubricant: A Case Study

In the efforts of achieving green manufacturing process, the use of mineral base lubricant has been under question as it poses significant health and environmental hazards. This is a concerning issue since it was estimated figure of one million workers are exposed to machining lubricant [1]. Based on the investigation made on the effect of mineral base lubricant towards machinist’s health, evidence shows machinists that are exposed to primarily the mineral base straight lubricant can suffer from skin cancer [2] and esophageal diseases [3,4]. Furthermore, this finding does not exclude the health risk posed by mineral base soluble lubricant.
The formulation of these lubricants were complicated that combine ingredients such as base oil (mostly mineral base oil), emulsifiers, anticorrosive agent, antioxidant agent, biocides, surfactants and much more. The use of additives in the making of lubricant can be one of the

One of many is the ability of the lubricant to stay in contact with the workpiece during the machining process. Therefore, the wettability of the lubricant needs to be investigated to ensure the best performance is achieved. Wettability of a liquid can be measured by looking at its contact angle value. This ability resulted from the surface energy of the liquid and the intermolecular interaction between the liquid and solid. The balance between adhesive and cohesive force weighs the capability of intermolecular interaction. The adhesive force is the force that keeps the liquid drop intact to the solid surface, while the cohesive force is the force that prevents the liquid to stay intact with the solid surface. Thus, liquid drop that has a low wetting angle has a higher adhesive force that the cohesive force. This will allow the force to pull the liquid towards the solid surface rather than pushing it away. D.B. Abraham et al. discussed more theory on wetting and spreading