Effect of Tool Rotation on Electrochemical Milling of Stainless Steel 316L

Abstract

AbstractMilling of stainless steel workpiece by conventional process is very challenging as the tool wear and design of tool for complex shapes are very critical and also machine at low rate. The surface finish and the machining accuracy obtained during conventional milling are not good. To overcome these limitations, electrochemical milling is very good alternative. It is a non-conventional process which removes material atom by atom from the layer of the workpiece same as electrochemical machining. As it is non-contact process, the accuracy of the tool surface replicates on the workpiece. Various process parameters enhance the accuracy of milling. In this paper, ‘L’ shape profile has been milled over the stainless steel 316L of thickness 3 mm with copper rod of diameter 5 mm. An electrochemical milling setup is indigenously developed to perform the experiments. The effect of tool rotation over the machining depth, surface roughness and overcut has been studied. The result shows that the rotary tool enhances the machining depth and surface finish and decreases the overcut of the electrochemical milled surface. The surface roughness value for the milling layer depth of 0.15 mm and tool feed of 8 mm/min with tool having the 500 rpm is 0.072 µm.KeywordsElectrochemical millingTool rotationSurface finishMachining accuracy