Localized electrochemical micromachining with gap control

Abstract

An approach to electrochemical micromachining is presented in which side-insulated electrode, micro gap control between the cathode and anode, and the pulsed current are synthetically utilized. An experimental set-up for electrochemical micromachining is constructed, which has machining process detection and gap control functions; also a pulsed power supply and a control computer are involved in. Microelectrodes are manufactured by micro electro-discharge machining (EDM) and side-insulated by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). A micro gap control strategy is proposed based on the fundamental experimental behavior of electrochemical machining current with the gap variance. Machining experiments on micro hole drilling, scanning machining layer-by-layer, and micro electrochemical deposition are carried out. Preliminary experimental results show the feasibility of electrochemical micromachining and its potential capability for better machining accuracy and smaller machining size.