• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.299-313
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• 2024

Electrochemical machining (ECM) is an effective manufacturing method for difficult-to-machine materials and is widely used in the precision manufacturing of aerospace components. In recent years, the requirements for the machining accuracy and surface integrity of ECM have become increasingly stringent. To further improve the machining quality, this work investigated the intricate laws between electrolyte filtration accuracy and machining quality. Electrolytes with different filtration accuracies were compared, and a numerical simulation was used to evaluate the change in temperature and bubble rate of the flow field in the machining area. Experiments were conducted on ECM of Ti-6Al-4V (TC4) alloy workpieces using electrolytes with different filtration accuracy. The workpiece machining accuracy and surface quality were analyzed, and the repetition accuracy of the workpiece was evaluated. The intricate laws between electrolyte filtration accuracy and machining quality were explored. It was found that when the electrolyte filtration accuracy is improved, so too is the machining quality of the ECM. However, once the filtration accuracy has reached a certain value, the machining quality has extremely limited improvement. By evaluating the repetition accuracy of processed workpieces in electrolytes with different filtration accuracies, it was found that when the filtration accuracy reaches a certain value, there is no positive correlation between the repetition accuracy and filtration accuracy. The result shows that, for the workpiece material and conditions considered in this paper, an electrolyte with 0.5㎛ filtration accuracy is suitable for the wide application of precision ECM.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.23 no.4 s.181
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• pp.146-152
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• 2006

In micro electrochemical machining (ECM), electrodes should be prevented from unfavorable oxide and Passive layer formation on the machined surface or overall corrosion of the entire surface. Generally, metal electrodes corrode, passivate or dissolve in the electrochemical cell according to the electrode potential. Therefore, each electrode must maintain its stable potential. Tn this paper, the stable electrode potentials of tool and workpiece were determined using the potentiodynamic polarization test and verified experimentally considering machining stability and surface quality. Stable workpiece electrode potentials of two different passive materials of 304 stainless steel and nickel were determined in the 0.1 M sulfuric acid. Experimental results show good machined surface and fast machining rate using the determined electrode potentials.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.167-172
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• 2005

In this paper. micro electrochemical machining (ECM) for micro structure fabrications is presented. By applying ultra short pulses. the chemical reaction can be restricted only to the region very close to the electrode. Micro ECM is applied to machining micro structures through electrochemical milling process becasuse it doesn't suffer from tool wear. Using this method. 3D micro structures were machined on stainless steel. It was found that micro machining is possible with good surface quality in the low concentration electrolyte,0.1 M H₂SO₄. In ECM, as the machining depth increases, better flushing of electrolyte is required for sufficient ion supply. Layer-by-layer milling is advantageous in flushing. However, layer-by-layer milling causes taper of structures. To reduce the taper, application of a disk-type electrode was introduced. By electrochemical milling, various 3D micro structures including a hemisphere with 60 ㎛ diameter were fabricated.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.139-144
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• 2008

Micro electrochemical machining was investigated to machine micro internal features. This method uses a micro disk tool electrode and can easily machine micro features inside of a micro hole, which are very difficult to make by the conventional processes. In order to limit the machining area and localize the electrochemical dissolution, ultra short pulses were used as power source and a micro disk electrode with insulating layer on its surface was used as a tool electrode. By electrochemical process, internal features, such as groove array, were fabricated on the stainless steel plate.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.141-149
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• 2017

Due to the inaccuracy of micro-machining, various special processing methods have been investigated recently. Among them, pulse electrochemical machining is a promising machining method with the advantage of no residual stress and thermal deformation. Because the cross section of the wire electrode used in this study is circular, wire-pulse electrochemical machining is suitable for micro-hole machining. By applying the response surface methodology, the experimental plan was made of three factors and three levels: machining time, duty factor, and voltage. The regression equation was obtained through experiments. Then, by referring to the main effect diagram, we fixed the duty factor and machining time with little relevance, and solved the equation for the target 900 microns to obtain the voltage value. The results obtained from the response surface methodology were approximately those of the target value when the actual experiment was carried out. Therefore, it is concluded that the optimal conditions for hole processing can be obtained by the response surface methodology.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.52-59
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• 2006

Micro electrical discharge machining (EDM) and micro electrochemical machining (ECM) were studied for the fabrication of micro structures. Micro EDM has been used to machine micro structures from metals. However, since the tool wear is inevitable during the machining, the tool wear is drawback for the precision machining. Micro ECM is also used for micro machining and produces better surface quality than that of micro EDM. Moreover, since tool electrodes are not worn out, micro ECM is suitable for the precision micro machining. However, the machining rate is lower than that of micro EDM. In this paper, therefore, the hybrid machining process which uses micro EDM as roughing and micro ECM as finishing is introduced. By using this hybrid machining, a hemisphere with $100\;{\mu}m$ radius was fabricated and the efficiency of the process was investigated experimentally.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers Conference
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• 1999.05a
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• pp.251-255
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• 1999

In last paper, it was suggested electrochemical polishing method using the point electrode tools. It was aimed that Machining rate in ECM using the point electrode method should be ultimately small and also high dimension accuracy and surface integrity should be fine. In this paper, the machining characteristics were investigated by using the several types of electrolyte.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1281-1284
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• 2005

In the micro electrochemical machining (ECM), unfavorable oxide/passive layer formation and overall corrosion of electrodes must be prevented. Generally, the stainless steel electrode corrodes, passivates or dissolves in the electrochemical cell according to the electrode potential. Therefore, the electrode must maintain stable potential. The stable electrode potentials of tool and workpiece were determined with the potentiodynamic polarization test and verified experimentally from the point of machining stability and machined surface quality.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.496-501
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• 2009

In micro electrochemical machining(micro-ECM), it is important to measure and control the potential of a tool electrode and a workpiece electrode because electrochemical reaction rate depends on the potential of the electrodes. When the electrode potential was measured against a reference electrode, the error of measured electrode potential could be minimized by proper tool electrode design. In this paper, multi-function electrodes consisting of a tool electrode and a reference electrode was fabricated by micro fabrication techniques. The machining conditions in micro-ECM using multi-function electrodes, such as pulse voltage parameters and electrode potential, were investigated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.585-588
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• 2005

The dissolution characteristic of metal shows the different tendency according to the applied electrical potential, the kind of electrolyte and pH value, etc. In the micro electrochemical machining (ECM), unfavorable oxide/passive layer formation and overall corrosion of electrodes must be prevented. The anodic polarization curve of nickel has distinct three dissolution regions, i.e. two active regions and the transpassive dissolution region. In this paper, the stable electrode potentials of workpiece and tool were determined in sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid solution, respectively. In each solution, different machining property was shown and possible electrochemical reactions were discussed. On the basis of this experiment, the methodology to obtain the proper electrode potential was suggested.