Abstract
TB2 titanium alloys are widely used in the aerospace industry. A high surface quality is required for the performance and fatigue life of titanium alloy parts. Electropolishing is useful for thin metal plates owing to its good processability and conformability. In this study, electrolyte flushing was proposed for electropolishing a large surface and a NaCl-containing ethylene glycol electrolyte was adopted. Three different mechanical grindings were employed for pretreatment, and the ideal surface quality was obtained with a rubber grinding head. Therefore, in the process of electropolishing a large surface, electrolyte flushing is superior to stirring because its flow field is even and controllable. The effects of the main processing parameters (voltage, flow rate, and process time) on the surface roughness and morphology were studied. Finally, a mirror-like surface with a surface roughness of 10.5 nm was obtained after flushing electropolishing for 30 min under a voltage of 25 V and a flow rate of 0.84 m/s.
Highlights
TB2 titanium alloy is a typical near-β titanium alloy
Electrolyte flushing was proposed for electropolishing a large surface and a NaCl-containing ethylene glycol electrolyte was adopted
Three different mechanical grindings were employed for pretreatment, and the ideal surface quality was obtained with a rubber grinding head
Summary
TB2 titanium alloy is a typical near-β titanium alloy It has high specific strength, toughness, and elasticity. TB2 is highly sensitive to various surface defects, such as microcracks and scratches, which significantly affect the fatigue life of parts [1,2,3]. Surface defects affect both the high-cycle fatigue life and low-cycle fatigue life, whereas the surface roughness affects the high-cycle fatigue life [4,5,6]. Polishing is a common method for improving the surface integrity and fatigue life of titanium alloy parts. Because of its good processability and consistency, electrochemical machining is suitable for polishing parts with complex shapes, slender parts, and thin plates, as it has good reproducibility [11,12,13]
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