Parametric optimization of traveling wire electrochemical discharge machining (TW-ECDM) process for aspect ratio during machining of borosilicate glass

Abstract

Glass owing to its transparency, chemical resistance, and high strength to weight ratio has gained importance in various advanced applications including MEMS, lab-on-chip devices, microfilters, micropumps, microvalves, microfluidics, and so on. The borosilicate glass serves as the substrate of microdevices due to its good surface integrity, corrosion, and thermal shock resistance but the micromachining of glass due to its brittleness and non-conductivity had been posing serious challenges with accuracy and precision. A recently developed hybrid non-conventional machining technique called electrochemical discharge machining (ECDM) has emerged as a successful tool for cutting these materials. The present paper discusses the effect of voltage, electrolyte concentration, and inter-electrode gap on the aspect ratio of machined micro slots on borosilicate glass with the help of TW-ECDM set up using Taguchi L9 array design of experiments. The results show the voltage has emerged as the main effecting factor followed by electrolyte concentration and inter-electrode gap. Using this novel process micro slots having an aspect ratio of up to 28 have been machined successfully.