Study of Dominant Variables in Electrochemical Micromachining

The requirements for micro components in all emerging areas are rapidly increasing. To meet this demand, micro machining is considered as one of the key technologies for the production of micro parts and components. Among the various capable processes, electrochemical micro machining is considered due its advantages of accuracy, no electrode wear and various ranges of materials that can be machined. An experimental set-up for Electrochemical Micro machining (EMM) is developed, which consists of various elements. This paper focuses on experimental study of dominant variables like pulse on-time, current, voltage, and electrolyte concentration on machining speed and overcut when machining 304 stainless steel. From the experimental results, it is evident that the machining speed reaches maximum at a pulse on-time of 30 ms. The most effective range of pulse on-time and electrolyte concentration can be considered as 25-30 ms and 0.23-0.29 mole/l, which gives moderate machining speed and lower overcut.