US H2,142 H1
Method for measuring the concentration of bodymaker lubricant in bodymaker coolant
Edward Elizondo, 601Highpoint Cir., Rochester Hills, Mich. 48307 (US); George J. Beyer, 1352 Madison, Troy, Mich. 48083 (US); and Andrew M. Hatch, 2557 Orbit Dr., Lake Orion, Mich. 48360 (US)
Filed on Jan. 28, 1999, as Appl. No. 9/238,790.
Claims priority of provisional application 60/073010, filed on Jan. 29, 1998.
Int. Cl. G01N 31/00 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 436—60 20 Claims
 
1. A method for measuring the concentration, in a bodymaker coolant that has a pH value greather than 3.0, of a bodymaker-lubricant-as-prepared that includes a boric acid-amine complex, said method comprising operations of:
(I) providing a representative sample of the bodymaker coolant, said representative sample having a total boron content and a precisely known size and being either inherently liquid or dissolved in a solvent to form a liquid solution that contains all of the boron content of the representative sample;
(II) mixing with the representative sample of the bodymaker coolant provided in step (I) a sufficient amount of an interference-preventing-acidulant to form a first mixture with a pH value below 3.0, said interference-preventing-acidulant comprising molecules of:
(A) at least one carboxylic acid having a water solubility of at least 1.0% and at least two carboxyl moieties (i.e., —COOH moieties) per molecule; and, optionally, one or both of the following components:
(B) at least one organic substance that does not include at least two carboxyl moieties per molecule but does include in each molecule at least two total moieties selected from the group consisting of nitrogen atoms that are not tetravalently bonded to any other atoms, phosphorus atoms that are not tetravalently bonded to any other atoms, sulfur atoms that are not hexavalently bonded to any other atoms, hydroxyl moieties that are not part of carboxyl moieties, and ether moieties; and
(C) water;
(III) mixing with the first mixture formed in step (II) a sufficient amount of at least one alkali metal or alkaline earth metal hydroxide to form a second mixture having a pH value that is known within 0.1 pH unit and is in a range from 4.0 to 9.0;
(IV) mixing a total amount of a neutral boric-acid-freeing-substance with the second mixture formed in step (III), so as to form a third mixture having a pH value, said neutral boric-acid-freeing-substance being selected from the group consisting of organic substances that (i) contain no carboxylate or other acid moieties but do include at least three hydroxyl moieties in each molecule and (ii) are soluble in water to an extent of at least 1.0%, said total amount of neutral boric-acid-freeing-substance having both of the following properties:
(1) the pH value of the third mixture is at least 0.5 pH lower than the pH value of said second mixture; and
(2) if an additional amount of said neutral boric-acid-freeing-substance that is at least 5% of said total amount of neutral boric-acid-freeing-substance is added to the third mixture so as to make a test mixture, the test mixture has a pH value that does not differ by more than 0.1 pH unit from the pH value of the third mixture;
(V) mixing with said third mixture a precisely known sufficient number of moles of hydroxide ions that are soluble in said third mixture, so as to form a fourth mixture having a pH value that differs by not more than 0.1 pH unit from the pH of said second mixture, said precisely known sufficient number of moles of hydroxide ions having the property that, if a precisely known trial number of moles of hydroxide ions that are soluble in said third mixture, said trial number of moles being smaller than said sufficient number of moles by an amount that is at least 2.0% of the sufficient number of moles, had been mixed with said third mixture instead of the sufficient number of moles, so as to form a trial fourth mixture, the trial fourth mixture would have had a pH value that was lower than the pH value of said second mixture by more than 0.1 pH unit; and
(VI) calculating a content in grams of boron in said representative sample of bodymaker coolant by multiplying the sufficient number of moles of hydroxide ions mixed in step (V) by 10.8 to generate the content in grams of boron in said representative sample and calculating the concentration of bodymaker-lubricant-as-prepared in the bodymaker coolant from the calculated content in grams of boron in said representative sample, the precisely known concentration of boron in the bodymaker-lubricant-as-prepared, and the precisely known size of the representative sample,
the term “precisely known” in the description above meaning known within a precision of 10% of the value of any specified quantitative property of a tangible material to which the term is applied, or of a value calculated from use of a non-tangible mathematical function or formula to which the term is applied.