Experimental Study on Electrochemical Machining with Electrolyte Confined by Absorption Material

Abstract

Abstract Electrochemical machining (ECM) is a promising approach to manufacture micro textures on the metallic workpiece surface. However, due to the fluidity of the electrolyte, the undercutting and stray corrosion always exist on the processing surface which make the surface shape and integrity difficult to control. This paper proposed a new surface texturing processing method called ECM with electrolyte confined by absorption material (ECM-ECAM). During machining, the non-metallic absorption material is inserted between the cathodic tool and the anodic workpiece after absorbing the electrolyte. Since the flowing electrolyte is replaced with the electrolyte that is absorbed and confined in the absorption material, limitation of the electrolyte existing area and the machining area is realized. In this way, micro textures could be generated with an effective voltage applied between the cathode and the workpiece. The machining principle, designed and fabricated machining system and the machining results are presented in this paper.