Study on the new development of combined electrochemical processes using pulse current

마이크로 펄스 전해 복합가공에 관한 연구

Some investigators who have tried to achieve the highly smooth surface finish using electrochemical processes have reported that high current density produced lustrous surfaces while the opposite conditions produced a passive layer and had a tendency to produce a black surface. However, processing at a low current density may produce a non-lustrous surface but the improvement of dimensional accuracy of the surface is significant. The surface with pulse process was a bit more lustrous than with continuous current but the black passive layer still could be found at grooved surface. There are two ways to achieve highly smooth surface finish. One is brushing it with a brush the other is electrochemical machining (ECM) with high current. The former method is the most common polishing practice, but not only may the surface obtained differ from operator to operator, but precision smooth surface on micro grooves are difficult to obtain. The latter one recently has been used to produce a highly smooth surface after EDM process. However, the material removal rate in ECM with high current is relatively high. Hence the original shape of the micro grooves, which was formed by electrochemical micro-machining (EMM) process, may be destroyed. In this study, an electrochemical polishing process using pulse current is adopted as a possible alternative process when micro grooves formed by EMM process should be polished. Mirror-like micro grooves with lustrous and smooth surface can be produced electrochemically with pulse current because the voltage and current used can be lower than the case of continuous current. This study will discuss the accurate control of physical and electrical conditions so as to achieve mirror-like micro grooves with lustrous and smooth surface without destroying the original shape of micro grooves.