A study on the tribological behavior of water-based nanolubricant during corrugated rolling of copper plates

Corrugated rolling is one of the metal forming processes using corrugated rolls to machine hard-to-deform metals, which leads to problems of high friction and severe wear. Lubricants are essential to reduce rolling forces, extend the life of corrugated rolls, and improve efficiency. In this work, a comparison of the surface quality of copper plates after corrugated rolling adopting different lubrication conditions (dry condition, O/W lubricant, TiO2 water-based nanolubricants) was made to explore the tribological behavior and lubricant mechanism of water-based nanolubricant during the corrugated rolling of copper plates. The results show that the 3.0 wt.% water-based nanolubricant exhibits excellent lubrication performance, and the maximum rolling force is reduced by 21.49% compared with the dry condition. Additionally, the effect of reduction on the surface quality of corrugated rolled copper plates was explored. The surface roughness at the peak position of the copper plate increased gradually with increasing reduction, and the surface roughness at the trough position showed little change, which was mainly caused by the synergistic effect of the roughness transfer and the high-strain hardening at the trough position of the copper plate. Overall, an optimal concentration of 3.0 wt.% water-based nanolubricant exhibits the best properties in terms of reducing the rolling forces and improving the surface quality of the rolled copper plates during corrugated rolling processes.