Design Of Electrochemical Micromachining Setup And Related Experimental Research

Electrochemical micromachining (EMM) is a nontraditional machining method to remove material through metal ions, which has some advantages as higher processing accuracy, no wear of tool, no residual stress and deformation and no relation to the hardness of materials. Therefore, combining with CNC technology, it is easy to realize accurate processing on micro structure.In this paper, a setup, which can be used for the machining based on electro-chemical micromachining is designed and manufactured. In consideration of stiffness of setup and composition with other processing method, a "C" type structure is designed and selected. Rotating-platform is manufactured by marble material, which has the performance to resisting corrosion; Vibration-isolation platform is customized and can isolate the vibration of environment to impact the EMM process; macro scope feed is supplied by linear displacement slippery sets with feedback of light grid ruler, and micro scope feed is supplied by PI3-axis accurate feed platform; The range of accurate feed of the setup is100×100×10mm, and the range of macro scope of Z axis is0--400mm, the reposition accuracy of feed structure is1μm; The spindle is droved by servo motors and the range of rotary speed is0～3000rpm, and its rotation accuracy is below to2μm. Furthermore, this setup has the function to adjust the tensile force and creep automatically. In addition, the CCD scope fixed on the setup can detect the processing situation in real-time.The control system for the setup is developed. The rapid movement is controlled by motion card and linear displacement slippery sets, and accurate movement is controlled by motion card and PI3-axis accurate feed platform. Based on the two above facilities, rapid movement and accurate movement of EMM process can be realized easily, no matter single-axis and2-axis motion; The parameters of EMM can be set and observed by the human-computer interface in real-time; The detection circuit system of EMM processing situation is made up by holl current sensor. A/D transfer module and data acquisition card. When the feedback signal of EMM process is delected by detection circuit, it is delivered to IPC (industry personal computer), and combined with motion system to realize rollback operation.With the characteristic of EMM, some relevant experiments are made by using this setup. In these experiments, lots of influence elements are considered and some comparison and analysis are made, such as machining voltage, feed velocity, electrolyte and electrode shape, etc. After the study and analysis, some different results are discovered because of different machining parameters. Meanwhile, combined with this setup and finite element software, some experiments are made to simulate the electric field distribution of electrode under different machining parameters, which is used to provide experiment basement of EMM. By using electrochemical etching method, some micro cylinder electrodes and spiral electrodes are made. Finally, some micro structures are machining (such as micro holes) by micro cylinder electrodes and spiral electrodes, and some further comparisons are also been made.