Flow field design and experimental study of electrochemical machining using thin hollow cathodes

Abstract

In order to pursue excellent performance, especially in aerospace and weapon equipment industry, components with complex structure made of difficult-to-cut material (stainless steel, titanium alloy, high-temperature alloy etc.) are more and more applied. From the rough to the finished product, the material removal rate (ranging from 10% to 90%) may be large, the machining efficiency and material utilization are low, and the machining cost would be high using traditional milling or grinding method. One kind of thin hollow cathode having high strength is developed for electrochemical machining of complex structure. This cathode is expected to improve the machining efficiency and reduce the cost. The flow field design is a key problem to be solved. Fluid dynamics numerical analysis is used to optimize the cathode structure, and the design rules of cathode are given. Experiments are carried out to prove the correctness of the numerical analysis, cutting stability, accuracy, and surface quality are improved. Finally, different structures are successfully machined on the material of TB6 by thin hollow cathodes.

Simulation study on cathode structure optimization of aluminum alloy thin-walled internal spiral deep hole electrochemical machining

“…Werner solved the problem of steady-state cathode design with different smoothness anodes by using the complex variable function method [14]Error! Reference source not found.. Yao et aloptimized the structure of thin hollow cathode by using the numerical method of fluid dynamics, and successfully fabricated different structures on TB6 material by using the optimized cathode [15]. Tang et alproposed a new type of concentrated magnetic field assisted electrochemical machining technology, designed and manufactured ECM cathode with the same gap, and improved the process accuracy [16].…”

Research on depth control of machining trace in electrochemical trepanning

“…4 Electrochemical machining (ECM) is a process wherein the metal workpiece as the anode is anodized in the electrolyte to remove materials and realize the forming process. [5][6][7][8] ECM affords high processing efficiency and can process difficult-to-machine materials. Consequently, it is widely used in the manufacturing of integral structural parts.…”

Improvement of leading-edge accuracy by optimizing the cathode design plane in electrochemical machining of a twisted blade

“…Ernst et al 13 proposed an inverse approach based on material-specific data to improve the adaptation of the cathode and shorten the development cycle, whereby the desired vane geometry was obtained. Yao et al 14 carried out flow-field simulation for a thin, hollow cathode and proposed design rules for the cathode based on numerical fluid-dynamics analysis.…”