Advancing electrochemical jet methods through manipulation of the angle of address

A review of physical experimental research in jet electrochemical machining

“…Orientating the nozzle at 22.5 • or 157.5 • increased the depth of the machined profile by 23% in comparison with a 90 • orientation. The jet velocity had no noticeable effect on the results in this study [32].…”

“…In a similar study to that of Clare et al [31], Mitchell-Smith et al also studied the effect of nozzle orientations on an Inconel 718 workpiece [32]. Whereas Clare et al [31] studied two nozzle orientations, Mitchell-Smith et al [32] studied the effect of nozzle orientations of 22.5 • , 67.5 • and 90 • to the material surface, as well as the effect of machining direction relative to the nozzle orientation angle, which they define as 'pushing' or 'pulling' while varying the jet flow rate. It was found the surface finish was better when the nozzle was 'pushed' or angled towards the direction of movement compared with when the nozzle is angled away or 'pulled'.…”

“…Changes to the nozzle geometries have been shown to alter the machined profiles, with the ability to produce more complex structures with nozzle combinations [31,34]. Changing the angle of address of the nozzles can significantly enhance the precision of cuts [31] as well as increasing the depth of cuts [32].…”

“…The hybrid technologies outlined in this review also show good promise at early stages of research, but also require a larger amount of understanding to move the technology further towards being a fully understood and controlled technology. More recent studies have shown major improvements to system control and machining precision [4,17,31,32,35] but further developments are still required.…”

“…In addition, the high aspect ratios achieved in EDM (ratios up to 15) are not achievable in Jet-ECM nor are the accuracies in the range of 1 μm achieved in EDM possible with Jet-ECM, with accuracies of around 5 μm [52] with overcuts commonly found. • Only external component surfaces of metallic parts have been machined, and within that only top surfaces, limiting the features Jet-ECM can process; however with developments in the angle of address [32], a wider range of features should be accessible for machining with further work. • Although the machining of through holes has been achieved in thin materials (250 μm thickness) [52], depth of cuts higher than 500 μm have been rarely achieved [23,45].…”