Sparking at cathode tools during electrochemical machining in flow-through cells

Abstract

The current density used in electrochemical machining can be increased only up to a certain value, above which the formation of electric sparks on the cathode (tool) is observed, whereby the latter is damaged and the anode surface becomes rough. The present work is devoted to the measurement of this critical density for small metal cathodes placed on the wall of a flow-through channel for Reynolds numbers from 1265 up to 5902 and static pressures ranging from 0.1 up to 1.0 MPa. The results are correlated by criterion equations which gave values of critical (sparking) cathodic current density,j s, with an average error of 7.1 % for laminar flow and 4.1 % for turbulent flow. The equations can be used for the calculation of the sparking current density for industrial flow-through cells for electrochemical machining.