Tribochemical properties are an essential component of the efficiency of metal forming lubricants. Their understanding, a basis for the selection of adequate additives, heavily relies on surface analytical techniques. In the last ten years, we have applied time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy (ToF-SIMS) to the analysis of the reactions of strip surfaces with typical additives of cold strip rolling and deep drawing lubricants. Data analysis procedures have been evolved to perform semi-quantitative comparisons. Analytical results performed on laboratory simulation tests and on real-size processes are compared. Examples of competition and synergies between different additives in a single lubricant are described