Experimental Investigation of Cut Profile in the Electrochemical Drilling of Titanium Alloy

Abstract:

Electrochemical machining process is an advanced material removal technique offering high precision and introducing no heat damage to the work material. The shape and size of machined area are highly dependent on some process parameters such as voltage, electrolyte and inter-electrode gap. To further enable a more insight into the process performance, this paper investigates the influences of applied voltage, electrolyte concentration and inter-electrode gap on the shape and sizes of hole produced by the electrochemical drilling process. Titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) was used as a work sample in this study as it has been extensively used in many advanced applications. The experimental result indicated that the use of high voltage and high electrolyte concentration can enlarge and deepen hole in the workpiece, while the inter-electrode gap provided less effect to the hole features. The maximum hole depth can reach 300 μm within 60 seconds when the applied voltage of 30 V, the inter-electrode gap of 10 μm and the electrolyte concentration of 10%wt were used. However, with this setup, the obtained cut profile became a non-uniform V-shaped hole. The use of lower voltage was instead recommended to yield a better cut quality with U-shaped profile.

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volume 777)
• Pages: 327-332
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.777.327
• Online since: August 2018
• Authors: Ornsurang Netprasert, Noppakao Chimyo, Suphaphich Phimphun, Jantakarn Sukjan, Viboon Saetang, Chaiya Dumkum
• Keywords: Drilling, Electrochemical Machining, Profile, Titanium Alloy

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