Metalworking Fluids

Aqueous fluids contain essential components such as emulsifiers, dispersants or wetting agents that are essential to the metalworking fluid’s performance, but foam formation can inhibit performance. Based on over 50 years' experience in defoaming technology and the production of organo-modified siloxanes, our TEGO® Antifoams SURFYNOL® defoamers set the benchmark for performance in terms of long-term stability, efficiency, compatibility and durability in cutting fluid formulations. 

Our TEGO® Antifoam technology is the perfect combination of organo-modified siloxane technology with specially designed hydrophobic particles. Suitable for water miscible fluids and neat oils, they can be used in cutting fluid concentrates and as tank defoamers.

Benefits of choosing TEGO® Antifoams

• Highly efficient regarding foam control and foam prevention
• Excellent foam knock down and hold down
• High compatibility 
• No adverse effects on finishing processes
• Good filterability
• Excellent performance even after several filtration cycles

Key product recommendations

• TEGO® Antifoam 691 and TEGO® Antifoam 692 - Highly efficient pre-defoamers based on novel organo-modified siloxanes, which provide excellent foam knock down and hold down as well as outstanding long-lasting defoaming persistence
• TEGO® Antifoam 793 - A pre-defoamer highly compatible with cutting fluid concentrates. Applied as tank side additive it provides outstanding foam knock down and long-lasting defoaming persistence

Our organic molecular surfactants are based on Evonik’s Gemini technology under the SURFYNOL® brand name. Covering the chemistries of acetylenic diols, our defoamers offer a unique multifunctional property that provides foam control as well as dynamic wetting in cutting fluids.

Benefits of our choosing SURFYNOL® Defoamers

• Provides excellent and long-lasting foam control
• Effective against microfoams
• Highly compatible
• Good substrate wetting
• Synergistic with conventional defoamers

Key product recommendation

• SURFYNOL® 2502 - provides an optimal balance between dynamic wetting, high water solubility and low foaming

In applications such as high-speed grinding, some metalworking fluid emulsions barely reach the contact point between tool and workpiece leading to insufficient lubrication, excessive wear and higher processing costs. Our organomodified siloxane wetting surfactants help you avoid this problem by increasing lubrication directly at the contact point giving excellent performance in oil-based and water-based fluids. They are also applicable in metal cleaner formulations too. 

Our wetting agents perform exceptionally well in reducing the surface tension of metalworking fluid emulsions. Although slightly less effective compared to our siloxane-based wetting agents, our alcohol alkoxylates can withstand extreme conditions like high or low pH values, as well as lowering the foaming tendency compared to simple sulfosuccinates. 

Key product recommendations

• TEGO® Surten W 111 - improves wetting properties of water-miscible lubricants and provides excellent dispersing properties on finely ground metal swarf as well as on fine iron and carbon black particles produced during cast iron machining
• TEGOPREN® 5840 - allows extraordinary dynamic reduction of surface tension that leads to super-spreading properties on treated hydrophobic surfaces
• SURFYNOL® 2502 - provides an optimal balance between dynamic wetting, high water solubility and low foaming

Complementing our defoaming portfolio, our multifunctional REWOCOROS® corrosion inhibitors for aqueous metalworking fluids provide metal protection to ferrous and non-ferrous metals. By preventing rust and corrosion to work pieces, machine parts and tools made from steel, iron, and aluminum, our REWOCOROS® corrosion inhibitors are an integral part of metalworking fluid formulations.

Today they are widely used in water miscible metalworking fluids across the globe.

In water miscible cutting fluid formulations, emulsifiers constitute one of the most essential components as they enable stable self-emulsification of the concentrate when diluted in water. Our emulsifiers and co-emulsifiers are based on renewable resources, and our TAGAT® glycerol-based emulsifiers exhibit good dermatological properties and no restrictive labeling.