Performance Analysis of Electrochemical Micro Machining of Titanium (Ti-6Al-4V) Alloy under Different Electrolytes Concentrations

Geethapriyan Thangamani,Syed Hammad Mian,Usama Umer,Muthuramalingam Thangaraj,Khaja Moiduddin,Hisham Alkhalefah

doi:10.3390/met11020247

Abstract

Titanium alloy is widely used in modern automobile industries due to its higher strength with corrosion resistance. Such higher strength materials can be effectively machined using unconventional machining processes, especially the electro-chemical micro machining (ECMM) process. It is important to enhance the machining process by investigating the effects of electrolytes and process parameters in ECMM. The presented work describes the influence of three different combinations of Sodium Chloride-based electrolytes on machining Titanium (Ti-6Al-4V) alloy. Based on the ECMM process parameters such as applied voltage, electrolytic concentration, frequency and duty cycle on response, characteristics are determined by the Taguchi design of experiments. The highest material removal rate (MRR) was achieved by the Sodium Chloride and Sodium Nitrate electrolyte. The combination of Sodium Chloride and Citric Acid achieve highest Overcut and Circularity. The optimal overcut was observed from the Sodium Chloride and Glycerol electrolyte due to the presence of glycerol. The better conicity was obtained from Sodium Chloride and Citric Acid in comparison with other electrolytes. A Sodium Chloride and Glycerol combination could generate better machined surface owing to the chelating effect of Glycerol.

Highlights

Titanium (Ti-6Al-4V) alloy is used widely in automobile, aerospace, power sectors and the pharmaceutical industry due to its property of resistance towards corrosion in the wide range of applications [1]
Effect of Electrolytes Andprocess Parameters on material removal rate (MRR). It can be inferred from the experimental data obtained that electrolyte concentration was the strongest influencing factor on MRR for the combination of NaCl + NaNO3 and
When machining is carried out with the second combination of electrolytes, glycerol acts as a chelating agent, which increases bonding of suspended ions resulting in an increase of current density and subsequently the volume of material removed

Summary

Introduction

Titanium (Ti-6Al-4V) alloy is used widely in automobile, aerospace, power sectors and the pharmaceutical industry due to its property of resistance towards corrosion in the wide range of applications [1]. As the demand of micro components has grown in the industry, electro-chemical micro machining (ECMM) is appearing as a promising technique to machine these miniature components with exceptional precision. The dissolution of the workpiece takes place on the application of voltage between the anode and cathode according to the electrolysis laws given by Michael Faraday. The reaction products precipitated during the electrolysis process are separated from the electrode gap by a fast-flowing electrolyte [2]. The ECM process includes corrosion products despite not being defined exclusively as a corrosion process owing to anodic dissolution mostly driven by redox [4,5]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion