Dynamic wetting of rolling oil on aluminum surfaces

Static and dynamic contact angles of stock oil and its solutions with additives(fatty acid, fatty alcohol, fatty methyl ester usually used in rolling aluminum) were measured on aluminum surface (Alloy 1145) by sessile drop technique on an OCA35 dynamic contact angle tester. The effect of additive on the drop spreading was investigated as well. It is shown that the drop spreads very quickly in the first 500 ms after the lubricant contacts with the aluminum surface, and then does slowly later. The dynamic contact angle decreases exponentially with time. In contrast to the stock oil, although addition of polarity additive of long chain alkyl into stock oil is able to decrease the surface tension of solutions, it weakens the wetting dynamic, which results from the adsorption at the expanding solid/liquid interface. Among the same long chain polarity organic compounds used, dynamic wetting decreases in the order of fatty acid, fatty alcohol and fatty ester. The blend of fatty alcohol and fatty methyl ester can improve the oil wetting dynamics and promote the lubricant spreading.