MECHANICAL WORKING IN THE PRESENCE OF A METAL CONTAINING COPPER OR ALUMINUM

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for the mechanical working of a metal containing copper, aluminum or an alloy thereof. The method is carried out in the presence of an aqueous cooling lubricant containing an alkanol amine of the formula (I): N(R3)(R4)(R5), where R3, R4 and R5 independently of each other designate a group (AO)nH, where AO is an ethyleneoxy group or a propyleneoxy group and n is a number from 2-6, the number of ethyleneoxy groups in relation to the number of propyleneoxy groups is between 2:1 and 1:3. Preferably the alkanol amine is used in combination with a phosphate ester or a carboxylic acid. The lubricant is capable of reducing or preventing the corrosion of both metals as well as iron. In addition it contributes in an essential way to the lubrication.

Description: MECHANICAL WORKING IN THE PRESENCE OF A METAL CONTAINING COPPER OR ALUMINUM The present invention relates to a method for mechanical working of a metal containing copper, aluminum or an alloy thereof. The method is carried out in the presence of an aqueous cooling lubricant containing an alkanol amine. Preferably the alkanol amine is used in combination with a phosphate ester or a carboxylic acid The lubricant is capable of reducing or preventing the corrosion of both metals as well as iron. In addition it also contributes in an essential way to the lubrication Aluminum and copper and alloys of these metals are among the most common construction metals The mechanical working is usually performed in the presence of an aqueous cooling lubricant A disadvantage of many aqueous cooling lubricants is that they frequently contain an iron corrosion inhibitor, such as monoethanolamine, diethanolamine or triethanolamine, which has a detrimental effect on copper, aluminum or alloys thereof and causes discoloration and dissolution Beside the corrosion, any dissolved metal also constitutes an environmental hazard and is difficult to remove from water in the process of disposal of the cooling lubricant In order to mitigate the negative effects of alkanol amine, anionic surface active components with long aliphatic groups, such as groups with 14-44 carbon atoms have been used Exemplary components are phosphate esters and fatty acids and dimer acids Their protective action depends on the formation of insoluble, organic layers on the metal surfaces If, however, dissolved di- or trivalent metals exist in the cooling lubricant, the anionic components will form insoluble salts with these metals ions This may sometimes further increase the corrosion inhibiting effect, but it will also lead to the formation of an undesirable sticky precipitation, which e g tend to interfere with the cleaning of the cooling lubricant Another drawback is the difficulty to remove the hydrophobic layers formed on the metal surfaces If they are not removed, they will cause problems in the subsequent surface treatment, for example pickling, phosphatizing, galvanizing or other metal depositing processes The presence of the long chain anionic components may also cause undesirable foaming and scum US patent 4 315 889 discloses a method of reducing the release of cobalt by performing the metal working in the presence of a cooling lubricant containing, as an active component, a specif c triazole or thiadiazole compound. However, since these active compounds are consumed in the presence of ethanolamines, the aqueous cooling lubricant has to be regularly upgraded. EP-A-0180561 describes the use of a tertiary alkanol amine compound for reducing the release of cobalt. According to the application the tertiary alkanol amine compound can advantageously be combined with carboxylic acids for further protection against the release of cobalt and the corrosion of iron. According to the present invention it has now been found possible to reduce or eliminate the above mentioned problems by using certain alkanol amines, which do not dissolve or discolor copper or aluminum metals. In more detail, the present invention relates to a process for the mechanical working of metals containing copper, aluminum or alloys thereof, which process is performed in the presence of an aqueous cooling lubricant having a pH of 6-10 and containing an alkanol amine of the formula N(R 3 )(R 4 )(R 5 ) (I), where R 3 , R 4 and R 5 independently of each other designate a group (AO) n H, where AO is an ethyleneoxy group or a propyleneoxy group and n is a number from 2-6, and the number of ethyleneoxy groups in relation to the number of propyleneoxy groups is between 2: 1 and 1:3. Particular effective in avoiding the side effects of conventional iron corrosion inhibiting components in earlier used formulations are according to the invention aqueous cooling lubricants in which the alkanol amine I are supplemented by a short chain anionic compound selected from the group consisting of a phosphate ester of the formula Rι(oxyalkylene) n OP(O)(X)(OH) (II), or (HO) 2 (O)P-(oxyalkylene) m -OP(O)(OH) 2 (III), where Rj is an alkyl group with 1-12 carbon atoms, X is hydroxyl or the group RjO, where R } has the above mention meaning, oxyalkylene is a group containing 2-4 carbon atoms, n is a number from 1-15 and m is a number from 4- 20, or a salt thereof or a carboxylic acid of the formula R 2 (COOH)r (IN), where R is an alkyl group with 4-10 carbon atoms and p is 1 or 2, or a salt thereof, or a mixture of any of the anionic compounds IL III and IN. The total amount of the anionic compounds II, III and IN is normally 10-1000%, preferably 15-300% by weight of the alkanol amine I. The alkanol amine L, preferably in combination with at least one of the anionic compounds II, III and IN, results in an essential reduction in the amount of dissolved copper and discolored copper and aluminum in comparison with a corrosion inhibitor consisting of a carboxylic acid and an alkanol amine, such as triethanolamine. The compounds I, II, III and IN also contribute to the lubrication. The alkanol amine I contains always at least 2 propyleneoxy groups. Preferably the alkanol amines are produced by ethoxylation of ammonia with 2-4 moles ethylene oxide followed by propoxylation with 4-7 moles per mole ammonia. The hydroxyl groups of these alkanol amines will consist of only secondary hydroxyl groups. The ratio of ethyleneoxy groups to propyleneoxy groups is preferably between 1: 1 and 1:3. The carboxylic acid of formula IN contains an aliphatic, group which can be saturated or unsaturated, straight or branched. Preferably the aliphatic group of monocarboxylic acids contains 5-9 carbon atoms, while the dicarboxylic acids preferably have an aliphatic group with 6-10 carbon atoms. Suitable examples of carboxylic acids are azelaic acid, pelargonic acid, sebacic acid, isononanoic acid, neodecanoic acid, n- octanoic acid, n-decanoic acid and dodecandioic acid. The carboxylic acids having a branched aliphatic group of the preferred size are often utilized, since they are low foaming. In the phosphate esters of formulae II and III, the (oxyalkylene)„ group and (oxyalkylene-X n group respectively, are suitable selected in such a way that the esters will be water-soluble or easily dispersible in water. The aliphatic group Ri can be saturated or unsaturated, straight or branched and contains preferably 2-8 carbon atoms. Preferably the phosphate ester with formula II consists of at least 50% by weight of monoesters. In formula III the polyoxyalkylene chain preferably consists, at least partially, of oxyalkylene groups with 3-4 carbons atoms and m preferably is at least 6, since these diphosphate esters beside the corrosion inhibiting effect give a considerable contribution to the lubrication. Especially suitable are those diphosphate esters, which contains a polyoxypropypene chain with 5-10 oxypropylene units. The content of the alkanol amine I and the anionic compounds II, III and IV may vary within wide limits, but is normally between 0.1 and 10% by weight, preferably between 1 and 7% by weight of the cooling lubricant ready for use. The cooling lubricant can also contain a number of other additives, such as additional corrosion- inhibiting additives and lubricants, pH-regulating or controlling additives, bactericidal agents, viscosity-increasing additives, solubilizers, perfumes, colourants etc. Examples of suitable additional corrosion inhibitors are amines compounds, such as triazole and thiadiazole compounds, and inorganic compounds, such as alkali metal hydroxides and boric acid, and reaction products between boric acid and/or carboxylic acids with organic compounds, such as alkanol amines. The content of these additional corrosion inhibitors may be up to 3% by weight of the cooling lubricant. Although the cooling lubricant containing the alkanolamine I and the anionic surfactants IL HI .and IV has an adequate lubrication ability for most applications it may be occasions where improved lubrication is desired. Examples of suitable lubricants to be incorporated into a cooling lubricant according to the invention are those selected from the group consisting of esters or amides of mono- or dicarboxylic acids having at least 12 carbon atoms in the acyl groups, aliphatic phosphate esters containing one or two aliphatic groups with 6-18 carbon atoms, nonionic alkylene oxide adducts with a molecular weight above 400, such as polypropylene glycols, glycols of randomly distributed propyleneoxy and ethyleneoxy groups and block polymers of propylene oxide and ethylene oxide, and mixtures thereof. The content of these additional lubricants may be up to 3% by weight of the cooling lubricant ready for use. The solubilizers are usually low molecular compounds containing at least one hydroxyl. The molecular weight is normally below 400. Examples of suitable solubilizers are propypeneglycol, ethylene diethyleneglycol, butyl diethyleneglycol and butyl triethyleneglycol. When preparing a cooling lubricant according to the invention, it is suitable to first prepare a concentrate, for example by first mixing the alkanol amine L anionic compounds II, III and IN and water, and then the supplementary ingredients. The amount of water is suitably between 5-80% by weight of the concentrate. Atypical concentrate according to the invention has the following composition: alkanol amine I 20-95, preferably 50-90% by weight anionic compounds II, III and IV 0-60, preferably 10-50% by weight additional corrosion inhibitors 0-30, preferably 0-15% by weight additional lubricants 0-30, preferably 0-15% by weight water 5-80, preferably 10-50% by weight other ingredients 0-30, preferably 0-15% by weight The total amount of the additional corrosions inhibitors and lubricants and other ingredients is often 5-40% by weight of the concentrate. Before the concentrate is used, it is diluted with water so that the cooling lubricant ready for use will have a total content of 0.5-20% by weight, preferably 2-10% by weight. The present invention is further illustrated by the following Examples. Example 1 Cooling lubricants ready for use were prepared from the aqueous concentrates in the Table 1 below. The content of water was 30% by weight. The pH of the concentrates was adjusted to 9 by adding KOH before they were diluted with water to an active content of 4% by weight. The corrosion inhibiting effects on copper and iron of these fluids were determined at an ambient temperature of 22°C by the following test methods Fe-corrosion tests were done by placing 30 grams of cast iron chips evenly spread on a circular filter paper with a diameter of 90 mm. 1.25 gram of one of the cooling lubricants was dispensed at the center of the filter paper, which was placed in a plastic Petri dish and covered by a lid. The corrosion taken place after 24 hours was determined by visually inspection of the rust staining according to a scale, where 0= no corrosion, 1= one stain, 2= two or three stains, 3= more than three stains up to 10% of the paper surface discolored, 4= between 10 and 25% of the paper surface discolored, and 5= more than 25% of the paper surface discolored. Cu-corrosion tests were performed by assessing the amount of leached copper obtained, when a 20 ml glass vial containing 5 glass beads, 5 mg of fine powder of copper and 10 ml of one of the fluids was shaken for 7 days. The amount of copper dissolved was measured by use of an atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). Initial screening of the fluids was done by using analytical sticks from Merck and only samples, which were found to contain less than 30 ppm of copper, were subjected to AAS analysis. The results obtained from the corrosion tests are shown in Table 2. Table 1. Aqueous concentrates Components % by weight I II III IV V VI VII VIII Composition 1 20 - 5Q 2 20 - 50 3 20 - 50 4 20 - 50 5 - 20 50 6 - 20 50 7 _ 20 50 8 - 20 - - 50 9 - - 20 - 50 10 - - 20 - 50 11 - - 20 - 50 12 - - 20 - 50 13 - - - 20 50 14 - - - 20 50 15 - - - 20 50 16 - - - 20 50 17 10 - 10 - 50 18 10 - 10 - 50 19 10 - 10 - 50 20 10 - 10 - 50 21 10 - - 10 50 22 10 - - 10 50 23 10 - - 10 50 24 10 - - 10 50 25 - 10 10 - 50 26 - 10 10 - 50 27 - 10 10 - 50 28 - 10 10 - 50 29 - 10 - 10 50 30 - 10 - 10 50 31 - 10 - 10 50 32 _ 10 _ 10 50 Component 1= phosphate ester, where Ri = hexyl, oxyalkylene= oxyethylene, n=5, X=hydroxyl, Component 11= diphosphate, where oxyalkylene=oxypropylene, m=9, Component 111= isononanoic acid, Component IV= neodecanoic acid, Component V= triethanolamine Component NI= triethanolamine+4 propylene oxide, Component V1I= triethanolamine+5 propylene oxide, and Component VH1= triethanolamine+ 6 propylene oxide Table 2. Corrosion test results Composition 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Fe-corrosion 0 0 1 3 0 0 2 3 Cu-corrosion ppm 350 20 20 10 350 30 30 10 Composition 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Fe-corrosion 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 2 Cu-corrosion ppm 350 50 50 15 350 30 20 10 Composition 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Fe-corrosion 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 Cu-corrosion ppm 350 20 10 5 350 10 10 10 Composition 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 Fe-corrosion 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Cu-corrosion ppm 350 20 10 5 350 10 5 5 From the results it is evident that the metal working fluids formulated according vention, namely compositions 2-4, 6-8, 10-12, 14-16, 18-20, 22-24, 26-28 and ave excellent corrosion inhibiting properties as regards copper and are superior to the comparison fluids 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25 and 29. The iron corrosion inhibiting properties of the formulations according to the invention are acceptable and in all tests zero iron corrosion were obtained, when the concentration of the active components was raised to 5,5% by weight. Example 2 Since brass and aluminum are often used in applications where visual appearance is important an immersion test was performed to show the degree of discoloration caused by the test solutions. Strips of 5 mm width and 60 mm length of each metal were placed in separate glass vials and tests solutions were added to cover half the length of the upright standing strips. The corrosion was visually determined after 7 days. The discoloration of the strips was measured according to a scale from 0 to 5, where 0 represent no corrosion, 1 indicate that up to 5% of the surface is black, 2 that 5-10% of the surface is black, 3 that 10-25% of the surface is black, 4 that 25-90% of the surface is black, and 5 that 90-100% of the surface is black. For the brass strips it was also noted if the test solutions were colored blue. The following results were obtained. The compositions with their numbers corresponds to the compositions in Example 1. Table 3 Composition no 1 4 5 8 9 12 Brass - corrosion degree 5 0 5 0 5 - solution blue - blue - blue Aluminum 5 0 5 0 5 Composition no 13 16 20 24 28 32 Brass - corrosion degree 5 2 1 1 0 1 - solution blue light blue - light blue - light blue Aluminum 5 0 0 0 0 0 From the results it is evident that the solution according to the invention are superior to the comparison solutions based on triethanolamine.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A method for mechanically working of a metal containing copper, aluminum or an alloy thereof in the presence of an aqueous cooling lubricant having a pH between 6 and 10, characterized in that the lubricant contains an alkanol amine of the formula N(R 3 )(R 4 )(R 5 ) (I), where R 3 , R and R 5 independently of each other designate a group (AO)„H, where AO is an ethyleneoxy group or a propyleneoxy group and n is a number from 2-6, the number of ethyleneoxy groups in relation to the number of propyleneoxy groups is between 2: 1 and 1:3. 2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the alkanol amine I has three secondary hydroxyl groups. 3. A method according to claim 2, characterized in that the alkanol amine is obtained by ethoxylation of 1 mole ammonia with 2-4 moles ethylene oxide followed by propoxylation with 4-7 moles propylene oxide. 4. A method according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the lubricant also contains an anionic. compound selected from the group consisting an phosphate ester of the formula Rι(oxyalkylene) n OP(θχX)(OH) (II), or (HO) 2 (O)P-(oxyalkylene) m -OP(O)(OH) 2 (III), where Ri is an alkyl group with 1-12 carbon atoms, X is hydroxyl or the group RiO, where Ri has the above mention meaning, oxyalkylene is a group containing 2-4 carbon atoms, n is a number from 1-15 and m is a number from 4- 20, or a salt thereof, or a carboxylic acid of the formula R 2 (COOH) P (IV), where R 2 is an alkyl group with 6-12 carbon atoms and p is 1 or 2, or a salt thereof, or a mixture thereof. 5. A method according to claim 4, characterized in that the phosphate ester III contains a polyoxyalkylene chain, which at least partially consists of oxyalkylene groups with 3-4 carbon atoms, and the phosphate ester II consists of at least 50% by weight of monoesters. 6. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that the carboxylic acid of formula IN is a monocarboxylic acid, where R 2 is a branched aliphatic group with 5-9 carbon atoms or a dicarboxylic acid, where R is a branched aliphatic group with 6-10 carbon atoms. 7. A concentrate, characterized in that it has the following composition: alkanol amine I 20-95% by weight anionic compounds II, III and IV 0-60% by weight additional corrosion inhibitors 0-30% by weight additional lubricants 0-30% by weight other ingredients 0-30 % by weight water 5-80% by weight where the alkanol amine I and anionic. compounds II, III and IV have the meaning defined in claims 1-6. 8. A concentrate according to claim 7, characterized in that it has the following composition: alkanol amine I 50-90% by weight anionic compounds II, III and IV 10-50% by weight additional corrosion inhibitors 0-15% by weight additional lubricants 0- 15% by weight other ingredients 0- 15% by weight water 10-50% by weight 9. A concentrate according to claims 7 or 8, characterized in that the total amount of additional corrosion inhibitors and lubricants and other ingredients is 5-40Y< by weight. 10. Use of an alkanol amine I as defined in claims 1, 2 or 3 as an corrosion inhibitor for copper, aluminum or an alloy thereof.

Inventors: SKOELD ROLF, SKOELD, ROLF
Applicants: SKOELD ROLF, SKOELD, ROLF
Application year: 1999
Main classification: C10M173
IPC codes: C10M173