Metal Forming Stamping Lubricant Technical Bulletins
Since 1914, IRMCO has been providing the metal-stamping and tube-bending industries with innovative, high-performance lubricants and technical support. Our oil and chlorinated paraffin-free lubricants have led the way in increasing stamping & bending efficiencies in numerous manufacturing markets – while our 100 plus years of experience have made us an indispensable technical resource for our customers’ processes.
Addressed below are many topics affecting our customers. If your topic isn’t listed amongst them – please feel free to contact our team of experts. We’re happy to help.
How does brix measurement influence stamping performance?
Now that you understand what “refractive index” is—how exactly is this meaningful to stamping lubricants?
Vanishing vs Evaporative Lubricants: How do they work?
The concept of a “vanishing” or “evaporative” lubricant is pretty simple. The product is designed to “vanish” or “evaporate” during the processing of the part—or shortly thereafter.
Factors in Drying
The main reason stampers use vanishing and/or evaporative lubricants is the perception of part dryness and lack of residue.
Water-Based Evaporative Lubricants
The newer classes of lubricants have been marketed in numerous ways…
Stamping vs Finishing: Proper Cleaner Selection
Lubricant removal will be easy if all necessary “homework” is done first. We’ve already discussed the huge differences one lubricant can have from another.
Stamping vs Finishing: Lubricants & TMC Coatings
Today’s TMC (transition metal coating) conversion coatings are a big step forward in finishing.
Welding & Lubricants: Weld Splatter
Another consideration in welding through stamping lubricants is how weld spatter can be impacted.
Stamping vs Finishing: Impact of Different Types of Stamping Lubricants
Unfortunately, stamping lubricants are often lumped into the same generic category when developing surface pretreatment processes.
Stamping vs Finishing: Improving Lubricant Compatibility with Finishing Processes
Before welding two unwashed metal surfaces together, one should consider two things.
Weld Residues & Smut
Before welding two unwashed metal surfaces together, one should consider two things.
Conventional Vanishing Lubricants
Traditionally, the term “vanishing lubricant” implied a product based partly or wholly on volatile solvents or chemicals.
Why Use Vanishing lubricant
Metal-stamping lubricant selection is impacted by many factors.
Weld-Through Stamping Lubricants
Even though manufacturers of welding equipment, welding experts and most engineers would agree only clean metal surfaces should be welded together.
Water Quality: Product Stability
Hardness of diluent water can have a major impact on stamping lubricant performance.
Water Quality: Chlorides & Sulfates
Hard water scale ions aren’t only culprits to watch for in poor quality diluent water–chlorides and sulfates can be every bit as troublesome.
Water Quality: Scale & Biomass Build-Up
Hard water scale and biomass build-up are two other problems related to poor water quality.
Concentration vs. Volume: Pooling & Residues
The last issue to consider in relation to low concentration, high volume lubricant application is to types of residues left behind on parts and fixtures.
Concentration vs. Volume: Optimization
The greatest argument in favor of using slightly higher lubricant concentrations applied sparingly over low concentrations flooded at high volume is overall performance.
Concentration vs. Volume: Proper Lubricant Application
Seldom does a single method of lubricant application best address the needs for all production parts within a plant.
Concentration vs. Volume: The Volume Debate
Very often, too much weight in stamping lubricant selection is placed on cost per gallon.
Water Quality: Lubricant Residues & Pretreatment Processes
Diluent water quality is highly scrutinized in metal cleaning and pretreatment processes.
The Effect of Water Quality on Metal Stamping
Water quality is one of the most important factors in industrial process.
Concentration vs Volume: Optimizing Productivity & Profit
Stamping lubrication is one is one of the most overlooked factors in managing plant productivity.
Water Quality: Lubricant Residue
Water hardness can dramatically alter the residues left behind by stamping lubricants on stamped parts.
The Benefits of Air Knives: Reduce Downstream Process Chemicals
The benefit of drier parts “post-process” is obvious: staining and corrosion potential are reduced while handling, inspection and subsequent processing are all improved.
The Benefits of Air Knives: Reduce Staining & Rust
Using air knives to remove excess fluid from part surfaces can dramatically reduce or eliminate white and/or black staining and corrosion of zinc-coated steel.
The Benefits of Air Knives: Reduction of V.O.C
Air knives eliminates or dramatically reduces V.O.C in production processes through the use of water-based fluids as they do not contain volatile solvents.
The Benefits of Using Air Knives
Air knives can be used in the current processes to help minimize scrap, improve safety and reduce chemical consumption.
Copper Displacement Cleanliness Test
Proper lubricant selection is not only crucial to part production and tool life, but it can dramatically impact pretreatment and finishing processes as well.
The Challenges of Forming Aluminum
Perhaps the biggest challenge when switching from steel to aluminum substrates in “light -weighting” is selecting an appropriate lubricant in forming aluminum.
The Challenges of Forming AHSS And UHSS
The process commonly referred to as “light-weighting” has driven engineering focus toward the use of aluminum and advanced high strength steel (AHSS) and ultra-high strength steel (UHSS) to offer lighter weight vehicles, without compromising safety.
Recycling Stamping Fluids
In recent years, greater focus has been directed toward production efficiencies. While recycling of metal scrap and packaging materials has been relatively easy to accomplish, recycling stamping fluids raises many issues affecting safety and quality.
Special Considerations in Forming Zinc Coated Steel
While zinc coated steel offers increased corrosion protection over conventional mild steels, these materials present their own unique processing issues.
Welding Through Lubricants
While it is generally recommended by most suppliers of welding process equipment to only weld clean surfaces together, the reality is that most manufacturers try to avoid cleaning stages whenever possible.
GHS: Classification & Labeling of Chemicals
GHS is an acronym for The Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals. GHS is a system for standardizing and harmonizing the classification and labeling of chemicals worldwide.
What Does Brix Mean
BRIX is a unit of measurement of refractive index, in the same way Fahrenheit or Celsius is a measurement of temperature. In both circumstances the properties of real world materials were used to devise a continuous scale of measurement.
