Abstract
Wire electrochemical machining (WECM) has great advantages and potential for fabricating parts with ruled surfaces made of difficult-to-machine materials. Characterized by a relatively short flow path, a pulsating radial electrolyte supply in WECM is proposed to improve the machining capability for thick workpieces. The tool is a tube electrode with a line of micro-holes on cylindrical surface. This paper introduces research into the processing of micro-holes in the tube electrode using a rotating helical electrode. The quantitative relationship among the feed rate, the applied voltage, and the diameter of the outlet holes was determined experimentally. A tube electrode with holes of varying diameters was fabricated by adjusting the applied voltage. Using it as a tool electrode, kerfs with a length of 10 mm and an averaged width of 0.903 mm were machined at a feed rate of 6 μm/s in a 30 mm-thick block, and there was no short circuit during processing. It was shown experimentally that using a tube electrode with holes of varying diameters as a tool electrode provides better process capacity for pulsating radial electrolyte supply in WECM.
Highlights
Low-cost precision machining presents a bottleneck when fabricating parts with ruled surfaces like the fir-tree slots in a turbine disc [1]. They are commonly made of difficult-to-cut materials such as nickel-based alloys and titanium alloys, and require strict surface integrity, allowing no recast layers nor microcracks
Too small duty cycle results in less material being removed, which eventually leads to short circuits between the helical results in less material being removed, which eventually leads to short circuits between the helical electrode and the tube
Paper, we we proposed proposed aa novel novel pulsating pulsating radial radial electrolyte electrolyte supply supply method method for for Wire electrochemical machining (WECM), WECM, which which
Summary
Low-cost precision machining presents a bottleneck when fabricating parts with ruled surfaces like the fir-tree slots in a turbine disc [1] They are commonly made of difficult-to-cut materials such as nickel-based alloys and titanium alloys, and require strict surface integrity, allowing no recast layers nor microcracks. WECM has great advantages and well surface integrity such as no dependence on mechanical properties of the material being machined, no tool wear, no residual stress, no recast layers, or heat-affected zones. It is a potential method for processing parts with ruled surfaces made of difficult-to-cut materials [2,3]. When the workpiece thickness reaches millimeter level, the amount of electrolytic products in WECM increases
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