Research on jet electrochemical machining with coaxial megasonic assistance

Abstract

In order to address the problem of poor localization in electrochemical machining (ECM), a coaxial megasonic assisted jet ECM method was proposed. Based on theoretical analysis, experiments were conducted to compare the effects of various electrolyte flow rates, electrolytic voltage and megasonic power levels on pit ECM. The results indicate that, in the range of experimental parameters, the increase of electrolyte flow rate and megasonic power can increase the machining depth, so as to improve the depth-diameter ratio of ECM pits. The use of coaxial megasonic-assisted jet ECM can enhance the depth-diameter ratio of etched pits compared to the without megasonic one. When applying a megasonic power of 22 W, the dimensions of the ECM pit were measured as 0.81 mm in depth and 5.73 mm in diameter, resulting in an depth-diameter ratio of 0.140. Under the same conditions, without megasonic assistance, the pit diameter is reduced to 0.65 mm while the pit depth increases to 6.36 mm, resulting in a depth-diameter ratio of 0.102. Additionally, The results also demonstrate that, the increase of electrolytic voltage makes the depth to diameter ratio of pit further increase on the original basis. With an electrolyte flow rate of 0.9 L/min and a megasonic power of 22 W, the use of electrolysis voltage of 50 V increased the depth-diameter ratio of etched pits to 0.173. Using the above preferred parameters, electrolytic milling of the wide groove is carried out. The depth-diameter ratio of the wide groove is increased from 0.039 to 0.059 by appending coaxial megasonic. This further verified the effectiveness of the coaxial megasonic-assisted jet ECM method.