Improving material removal rate in macro electrolyte jet machining of TC4 titanium alloy through back-migrating jet channel

In electrochemical machining (ECM), increasing the material removal rate (MRR) can improve machining efficiency. For the macro electrolyte jet machining (macro-EJM), increasing the working area of the tool front-end face can increase the MRR. However, the available tool structures cannot increase the working area of the frontend face by setting the jet channel at the center of the electrode. Therefore, to increase the working area of the front-end face, tools with back-migrating jet channels were proposed for the macro-EJM of TC4 titanium alloy in this paper. The distributions of the flow field and electric field of tools with different back-migration distances of the jet channel were numerically simulated, and experiments were carried out. Results showed that compared with the standard tool with a central jet channel, tools with back-migrating jet channels significantly increased the electricity quantity at each point on the surface of workpiece. This promoted the removal of more matrix materials from workpiece surface, improving the MRR of macro-EJM. When the back-migration distance of the jet channel was increased to 1.5 mm, the MRR increased by 41%, the machining depth increased by 33%, and the taper angle decreased by 15% compared with those of the standard tool with a central jet channel. In addition, the machining localization of the groove edge can also be improved by increasing the back-migration distance of the jet channel. When the back-migration distance of the jet channel was 1.5 mm, the reflected electrolyte was no longer in direct contact with the non-machined areas, leading to a sharp groove edge.

Automated summary

This study proposed a new tool structure with back-migrating jet channels, which significantly improved machining efficiency and material removal rate in macro-electrolyte jet machining. Through numerical simulations and experiments, it was found that this tool design increased the electricity quantity at each point on the workpiece surface, leading to improved MRR, machining localization, and groove edge quality.