Many applications
benefit from
oil-free lubricants
In the metalworking industry, increasing cost pressure and ever stricter environmental regulations are also causing a rethink in the use of lubricants. The oil-free lubricants from LBI oil free meet this trend and confidently answer the question of contemporary solutions. Our products are used by numerous companies in various applications. Whether our lubricants are used for punching, deep-drawing or bending: As a result, the workpieces have a perfect surface finish. Time-consuming and cost-intensive washing can be omitted.
No matter what application your workpiece goes through, it can be immediately processed and even painted with LBI oil free lubricants. The high quality of our products is due to our intensive development work in the company's own laboratory, which means that we can always offer an individual solution that meets current market requirements. You can be sure that with our products we not only guarantee reliable lubrication, but depending on the application, also ensure minimal punch wear, an optimal smooth cut and long tool life.
The applications at a glance:
- Forming
Our oil-free lubricants contribute significantly to the success of a forming process and prevent seizing on the tools. - Deep drawing
For the deep-drawing process, lubrication of the operation is of particular advantage, as it considerably reduces the proportion of scrap. - Punching
Punching or shear cutting is one of the most important sheet metal working processes. LBI oil free lubricants prevent cutting punches and cutting plates from premature wear or sheet metal cracking. - Fineblanking
To reduce friction and tool wear, the sheet is evenly sprayed with a thin layer of LBI oil free lubricant using rollers or spraying equipment.
- Tube bending
LBI oil free lubricants optimise bending and prevent metal cracking and wrinkling. - Tube end forming
We make sure that your pipe has one end and not two. - Machining processes - so that things run like clockwork
Depending on which applications come into play, the formulation of our lubricants is adapted to the individual needs of our customers. As a result, you have exactly the lubricant with the exact properties you need. Together with LBI's dosing technology, our innovative lubricants form a field-proven overall solution that has already been established in numerous applications worldwide for decades.
Principle of operation and advantages of oil-free lubricants
Many applications benefit from the use of oil-free lubricants instead of conventional forming oils or cooling lubricants.
Especially in combination with a LBI minimum quantity lubrication system, oil-free lubricants can show their advantages. The viscosity and sprayability of the ready-to-use lubricant can be defined in such a way that only very little lubricant is required for a very good forming result.
Particularities of application
In contrast to oils, different basic raw materials are used for oil-free lubricants. Depending on the application and lubricant type, a distinction can be made here between:
- Water-based lubricants
- Water-free lubricants
- Lubricants based on sustainable bio-solvents (evaporating lubricants)
The basic raw materials are combined with additives to create a ready-to-use lubricant.
In contrast to mineral oil-based lubricants, these water-based oil-free lubricants have only a lower creep capacity but a very high performance, even at very low application quantities. This behaviour leads to some special features in the application:
The influence of the dispensing technology on the entire process is greater than with oil-based lubricants. Due to the low creep ability, the lubricant does not spread as much in the tool. This means that the lubricant must already be everywhere when it is applied, where it is also needed during forming or machining. For an efficient and stable process, it is therefore necessary to apply small quantities of lubricant at the correct points for the specific application. In addition, LBI oil free lubricants are mainly consumable lubricants. Ideally, therefore, all the lubricant has been used up after forming and the workpiece is dry. For processes with several forming stages, it may therefore be necessary to apply a further lubricant between the forming operations. For these processes, the use of a flexibly expandable dispensing system, such as the LBI DS-6 system, is an option.
Only a little lubricant is needed, but it must be in the right place.
Viscosity-temperature behaviour of oil-free lubricants
The behaviour of viscosity with increasing temperature also differs in oil-free lubricants from conventional oils. When plotted against temperature, many oil-free lubricants behave in exactly the opposite way to oil-based lubricants:
Forming oils are often viscous at room temperature (high viscosity) and become progressively thinner as the temperature increases (viscosity decreases). In contrast, oil-free lubricants have a low viscosity at room temperature, which increases with increasing temperature.
This means that these lubricants require a certain amount of heat in the forming process in order to develop their performance. Water-based lubricants have the positive side effect that the tools and components do not get as hot, which is reflected in a longer tool life (due to the cooling effect, compare Advantages). The cold lubrication performance is ensured by specifically selected additives for these cases.
