Advanced developments in the field of liquid quenchants in order to the technological progress and the increased requirements for environmental protection

The quenching process and the quenching media in use are of great importance for the success of the heat treatment process. The quenching agent and its heat transfer behaviour significantly influences the resulting the mechanical properties and influences dimensional change and intensity of distortion.

The technological change in the metalworking industry, the requirements of the legislation and increasing efforts of the industry itself to reduce environmental pollutants and CO2 - emissions in the manufacturing process of parts and components leads to a critical analysis of the overall manufacturing process and to numerous efforts producing and heat treating parts in an energy- saving and environmentally friendly way.

This technical development also leads to increased requirements to the properties and quality of quenchants. When designing quenching oils, this means the need of a even higher thermal stability and more uniform heat transfer behaviour in order to reduce distortion during the quenching process significantly. However, this also leads to requirements for new quenching agents for the heat treatment systems and processes that are currently being introduced more and more frequently.

On the other hand, new product developments are based on the efforts to use renewable, sustainable and environmentally friendly base materials in order to reduce CO2 - pollution during their manufacturing, application and disposal.

This presentation describes the liquid quenchants currently in use with regard to these requirements and presents new approaches in regard to the development of quenchants which are targeted to achieve these technical and environmental objectives.