Metalworking

The more you know about metalworking formulations, the clearer the choice becomes.

Gone are the days when you could choose a hydrocarbon fluid simply because of its solvency power and cost.

Today your business decisions are much more complex combining:

Product performance
Protection of employee and user health
Environmental responsibilities

Somentor™, Exxsol™ D and Isopar™ hydrocarbon fluids are a leading choice for cooling and lubrication fluids used in metalworking processes. Wide product portfolio enables tailor-made formulations to meet customers’ specific needs.

Aluminum rolling

ExxonMobil’s Somentor™ hydrocarbon fluids provide good safety and performance required by the aluminum industry. It has been widely used for more than three decades. Somentor™ hydrocarbon fluids are specially designed for the aluminum-rolling industry, offering:

Improved annealing properties that reduce the potential of production rejects
FDA compliance for use in the production of food-packaging foils and sheets¹
Low odor to ensure good working environment

¹ FDA 21 chapter 178.3910 (a) and (b) regulations. This webpage is not the official source for regulatory claims. For regulatory compliance statements, please contact Customer Service

We have a portfolio of narrow range products to meet your needs, balancing flash point and drying time.

Metal forming

In metal forming processes such as stamping, punching, rolling or drawing, Somentor, Exxsol D and Isopar fluids offer:

High degrees of quality and consistency for reliable forming fluid formulation performance
Narrow boiling range for optimized formulations and drying times
Choice of boiling ranges and flash points allows for tailored fluid formulations (select from wide range of evaporation rates & viscosities)
- Exxsol D: lower boiling point, faster evaporation rate
- Somentor: medium to high viscosity with higher flash point
- Isopar: narrower boiling range
Low aromatics

Rust prevention

Exxsol D and Isopar fluids give formulators of rust prevention oils optimum control over product performance and a high level of safety and comfort for their employees and customers. Exxsol D and Isopar fluids offer:

A balance of tailored drying times, viscosity, lubrication and safe operating conditions
Good spreading and wetting properties
Low aromatic content resulting in low odor, lower toxicity

The odor intensity result is expressed in parts per million (ppm) of n-butanol. A larger value of butanol concentration means a stronger odor.

Improved comfort

Lower dilution ratio stands for lower odor.

Traditional hydrocarbon fluids

ExxonMobil Product Solutions

Dilution ratio (thousands)

Wide cut kerosene

White spirit

High flash kerosene

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

Exxsol™ D40

Exxsol™ D60

Exxsol™ D80

Isopar™ L

Detection threshold

Recognition threshold

The detection threshold (DT) is an estimate of the number of dilutions needed to make the actual odorous air sample “non-detectable”.

The recognition threshold (RT) is also a “dilution ratio” and represents the number of dilutions needed to make the odor sample “faintly recognizable".

Test done by St. Croix Sensory Inc., based on ASTM E679-04 and ASTM E544-10

Single sample test based on ExxonMobil method: EC-M-F01 Interpolated 0.05g starting weight.

Conditions:

Temperature: 23 ± 2℃

Relative humidity: 50 ± 5%

Evaporable oils

Evaporable oils typically provide a thin lubricant layer on a part during processing that swiftly evaporates afterward. For fast-drying evaporable formulations, Exxsol D fluids offer:

Simplified operations, no secondary cleaning step is necessary
Very low viscosity formulations for fast and uniform spreading

For odorless evaporable forming oils, Isopar fluids offer:

Enable the formulation of outstanding self- evaporable oils
Comply with selected food contact applications
Result in fast and uniform spreading of the formulated oil on metal parts

Electro discharge machining (EDM)

EDM is a sophisticated process to shape complex and highly defined components. Exxsol D and Isopar fluids help control equipment temperature during electro discharge while quickly

removing residual metallic pieces.

Advantages of Exxsol D and Isopar fluids:

Low electric conductivity for spark control
High flash points for great safety margins and applicability in higher-power sparking applications
High thermal and chemical stability for long fluid life, better fluid integrity, fluid reuse and performance

Product solutions

Dearomatized hydrocarbon solvents
Exxsol™ fluids maintain good solvency characteristics for a wide variety of applications.
Learn more
Synthetic isoparaffins
Isopar™ solvents are high-purity synthetic isoparaffins with consistent and uniform quality, thanks to selected feedstocks and controlled manufacturing processes. They deliver the narrowest boiling ranges for hydrocarbon fluids.
Learn more