Influence of Magnetic Field Distribution on ECM Process

Based on the concept of the interaction between a magnetic and electric field, a magnetic field was suppressed on the Electrochemical Machining (ECM) setup to improve the copying accuracy of ECM. Mathematical modeling and finite element modeling of the magnetic field was also developed using ANSYS to study the influence of permanent magnet design on the ECM process. The results indicate that by introducing the magnetic field the threshold of electrochemical reaction is decreased and the tracks of ions become complicated which makes the chemical reaction more extensive and more uniform in the inter-electrode gap. The distribution of magnetic field in the gap helps to improve the machining accuracy and the process efficiency, when the permanent magnet is at the end of the electrodes. Experiments have been carried out to validate the results of finite element analysis and the effect of a magnetic field on the ECM process is discussed.