Investigation of the Material Removal Process in Counter-rotating Electrochemical Machining

Abstract

Counter-rotating electrochemical machining (CRECM) is a new method, which can be used to machine the outer surface on revolving parts such as rollers, pressing tools and engine casings. To study the material removal process on the cylindrical anode workpiece in CRECM, an equivalent mathematical model is established. The variation tendency of the material removal rate along the radial direction, the minimum inter-electrode gap and the theoretical machining current are analyzed, respectively. Unlike that in conventional sinking ECM, the results show that the materials removal rate and the cathode feed rate can hardly reach a balance state. The materials removal rate keeps higher than the cathode feed rate after an initial transition stage, and the inter-electrode gap and the theoretical machining current vary gradually with the machining time.An experiment is conducted to verify the numerical analysis. It is seen that the machining current increases in the initial transition stage, and then begins to decrease gradually after reaching a peak value, which presents a similar variation tendency with the theoretical value. The surface of the machined anode workpiece is smooth without any flow tracks. The surface roughness is measured to be Ra0.12μm, and the cathode feed rate can reach 0.08mm/min, which indicates a favorable processability for the CRECM process.