Applied Fundamental Research Of Meso Scale Multi-grooves ECM Machining

As typical structure of meso scale micromachining, meso scale slot and groove are widely usedin fields such as aerospace, instrumention, precision molds and household applicans, besides, mesoscale slot and groove often appear as multi-slots and multi-grooves. Because of merits with highmachining efficiency, cathode without loss, no mechanical cutting force and etc, electrochemicalmachining is particularly suitable for meso scale multi-grooves machining. But problems withdifficulty to grasp shaping process, long period for machining parameters correction, instability ofmachining process restrict the application of electrochemical machining technology in the industrialproduction.ECM experimental research of the typical meso scale multi-grooves structure is carried outaccording to the ECM theory and the dedicated processing installations, as a result, multi-grooveswith average groove width0.275mm, side taper0.12is steadily processing out. The primary researchcontents of this paper including:1. Based on analysis of electrochemical anodic dissolution theory, implementation methods andmeasures which improve the machining accuracy and machining stability are proposed. Based onanalysis of ECM electric field theory, COMSOL software is used to simulate the forming process of asingle groove, and single groove machining accuracy which corresponds to different machiningparameters are obtained, as a result, selection of processing parameters are optimized.2. In the development of dedicated multi-grooves ECM clamping fixture, flow field simulationmethod which based on ANSYS CFX software is used to analyze the electrolyte flow channel in thesealing device of fixture. Optimized electrolyte flow channel and dedicated fixture which meet theexperimental requirements are obtained by analysis of electrolyte velocity distribution and pressuredistribution in the flow channel as well as processing gap. Inlet pressure and outlet pressureparameters which meet the experimental demands are obtained by analyze flow rate distribution in theprocessing gap with different electrolyte pressure.3. Shape of the single groove error is verified between electric field simulations and theelectrolyte forward experiments when adopt optimized parameters of the electric field simulation. Inthe experiment with same processing parameters, impact of processing stability with differentelectrolyte flow pattern and feed method are analyzed. In the electrolyte reverse flow orthogonalexperiment, groove width with different electrolyte electrical conductivity, unequal feed rate,inconsistent peak voltage are analyzed, as a result, multi-grooves structure which meet the demand of machining accuracy is processing out.