Title: Vegetable oil quenchants: a review

Authors: Rosa Lucia Simencio Otero; Lemmy Meekisho; Lauralice De Campos Franceschini Canale; George Edward Totten

Addresses: Department of Materials Engineering, São Carlos School of Engineering, University of São Paulo, Av. João Dagnone, 110, São Carlos, SP, 13563-120, Brazil ' Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR, USA ' Department of Materials Engineering, São Carlos School of Engineering, University of São Paulo, Av. João Dagnone, 110, São Carlos, SP, 13563-120, Brazil ' Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR, USA

Abstract: For thousands of years, vegetable oils have been used as cooling media to heat treat metals. However, the motivation for employing quenchants formulated with biodegradable, non-toxic and renewable base stocks has seen significant increase due to the environmental appeal to replace petroleum based quenchants. This paper presents an overview of the main aspects and characteristics of vegetable oils that directly influence their commercial application such as structure, classification, biodegradability and toxicity, quenching properties, oxidation and inhibition, and wetting. Further, some applications of vegetable oils as quenchants will be discussed here.

Keywords: quenching; heat treating; heat transfer; vegetable oil; triglycerides; hardening; quenchants.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMP.2019.101800

International Journal of Microstructure and Materials Properties, 2019 Vol.14 No.4, pp.307 - 360

Accepted: 16 Jan 2019
Published online: 27 Aug 2019 *

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