The history of human use of cutting fluids can be traced back to ancient times. People know that watering can improve efficiency and quality when grinding stone, bronze, and iron tools. In ancient Rome, olive oil was used for turning piston pump castings, and in the 16th century, butter and water solvents were used to polish metal armor. Starting from the successful development of boring machines by John Wilkinson in 1775 in England to process the cylinders of Watt steam engines, the application of water and oil in metal cutting emerged. After a long period of development by 1860, various machine tools such as turning, milling, planing, grinding, gear machining, and thread machining emerged one after another, marking the beginning of large-scale applications of cutting fluids.
In the 1880s, American scientists were the first to conduct evaluations of cutting fluids. F.W. Taylor discovered and elucidated the phenomenon and mechanism that using a pump to supply sodium carbonate aqueous solution can increase cutting speed by 30% to 40%. The term "coolant" was proposed in response to the fact that the cutting tool material used at that time was carbon tool steel, and the main function of the cutting fluid was cooling. Since then, people have referred to cutting fluid as cooling lubricant.
With the continuous improvement of people's understanding of cutting fluids and the enrichment of practical experience, it has been found that injecting oil into the cutting area can achieve good machining surfaces. Initially, people used animal and vegetable oil as cutting fluid, but animal and vegetable oil is prone to spoilage and has a short usage cycle. At the beginning of the 20th century, people began to extract lubricating oil from crude oil and invented various high-performance lubricating additives. After World War I, research and use of composite oils synthesized from mineral oils and animal and vegetable oils began. In 1924, cutting oils containing sulfur and chlorine were patented and applied in heavy cutting, broaching, threading, and gear processing.
The development of tool materials has driven the development of cutting fluids. In 1898, high-speed steel was invented, and the cutting speed increased by 2-4 times compared to before. In 1927, Germany was the first to develop hard alloys, which increased the cutting speed by 2-5 times compared to high-speed steel. With the continuous increase of cutting temperature, the cooling performance of oil-based cutting fluid can no longer fully meet the cutting requirements. At this time, people have begun to pay renewed attention to the advantages of water-based cutting fluid. In 1915, an oil in water emulsion was produced and became the preferred cutting fluid for heavy cutting in 1920. In 1945, the first oil-free synthetic cutting fluid was developed in the United States. The world's first fully synthetic metal cutting fluid was successfully developed by Cimcool Cincinnati Milling Machine Company (later renamed Cincinnati Miraron), and the product was marked with a unique pink color. CIMCOOL is revolutionary. In its birth in 1945, cutting fluids were available only in pure oil and emulsions like milk. CIMCOOL, as a water-based product, has twice the cooling performance of pure oil. Unlike oil, it has no smoke or fire hazards, and the processed parts are clean. Similar to emulsions, CIMCOOL maintains excellent cooling performance, and with the help of a unique chemically synthesized lubricant, its lubricity is developed, allowing for higher cutting speeds and improving tool life. CIMCOOL exhibits high resistance to bacterial attacks, and its transparency is readily accepted by industry. CIMCOOL is a significant step forward in the field of metal processing fluid technology, with other companies turning to the development of chemical metal processing fluids to drive the development of cutting fluid technology. With the deepening development of advanced manufacturing technology and the strengthening of people's environmental protection awareness, new requirements have been put forward for cutting fluid technology, which will inevitably promote the development of cutting fluid technology to higher fields.