Editorial

Citation

Taylor, J. (2003), "Editorial", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 55 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.2003.01855aaa.001

Editorial

We include in this, our first issue in 2003, several papers covering different topics. We hope that there are items of interest to all our readers and look forward to hearing your comments in due course.

Dr Dietrich Horner of Fuchs in Germany presents an up to-date picture of the world of unconventional metalworking fluids. He describes both the problems and how modern ideas are providing the solution. Although, naturally concentrating on the situation in Germany his article is relevant to all territories where metal working fluid use is significant. What is happening in Germany will influence certainly the rest of Europe and countries beyond.

Tony Jones of Lubrizol is also providing us with information on metalworking fluids. His particular interest is how chemical additives are being developed to solve problems both in neat and water based fluids. Of very practical interest is a description of the work his company has carried out with Ford to try and solve the misting problem associated with fluids by refining the well established polymer treatment solution.

The theme of water based metalworking fluids is continued in the paper from Ljiljana Pedisic and colleagues from INA Matziva Zagreb in Croatia. Again the pressure of improving fluids in line with changes in environmental and safety requirements is highlighted. The increasing restriction covering the use of chlorinated paraffin has led to the need to develop alternative extreme pressure additives. This paper describes how suitable components have been developed and tested. The components developed are especially formulated for use with water-soluble metalworking fluids.

Moving away from cutting oils completely we have the chance to examine the work of Messrs Patel of Nirma Institute of Technology and Deheri of Sardar Patel University. Both these seats of learning are in Gujarat State in India. They have been studying the behaviour of a magnetic based squeeze film between rotating plates. One of the interesting approaches to their investigation is the inclusion of a pocket in the plates. The idea is to create the situation found when a bearing has “run in” and the bearing surface has sustained damage. The use of a magnetic fluid has been found to improve the bearing performance in this situation. The results of the investigation and some interesting points for further discussion are very worthwhile studying.

Finally, in this issue Yang Jian and fellow workers at Zhejiang University in People’s Republic of China, report on investigations into materials for water hydraulic pumps. It seems likely that water will replace the more conventional hydraulic mediums in those many systems where a leakage of hydraulic fluid could be a major environmental problem. Of course conventional mineral oil based fluids would seem to provide a much better performance from a wear, sealing and corrosion standpoint. However, the gap between water and its “competitors” can be significantly reduced if changes are made to the pump materials. This paper shows how different candidate materials were evaluated. Clearly this is an area that will be subjected to considerable research in the future and it will be of great interest to hear of future developments from these authors.

As Editor of Industrial Lubrication and Tribology (ILT) it is always interesting to hear your views on the journal content and any suggestions for topics that you would like to see covered.

We look forward to hearing from you.

John Taylor