THE INFLUENCE OF SOME WORKING CONDITIONS ON ROUGHNESS IN ELECTROCHEMICAL MACHINING OF SOME CARBON STEEL WORKPIECES

Abstract

Electrochemical machining is a machining method that uses electrochemical reactions to remove material from a workpiece. The method involves using an electrolyte and an electric current for material removal to occur in a controlled manner. The machining method is also used in the case of workpieces made of hard materials or difficult to process by other methods. The experimental research whose results were included in the paper sought a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of the machining process and the interactions between the workpiece material and the electrolyte. The experimental research involved the configuration of a machining system, the preparation of the samples, the performance of the experimental tests resorting to the variation of some input factors such as the voltage applied to the electrodes, the size of the gap between the electrodes, the composition of the electrolyte. The experimental test planning method was used. The mathematical processing of the experimental results was carried out using specialized software, which is based on the least squares method. Empirical mathematical models were thus established, highlighting the intensity of the influence exerted by the input factors on the magnitude of the roughness parameter Ra. It was found that, among the input factors considered, the strongest influence is exerted by the gap size, followed by the voltage applied to the electrodes.

Keywords

• electrochemical machining
• voltage applied to the electrodes
• gap size
• electrolyte concentration
• surface roughness
• empirical mathematical model