Experimental Investigation and Optimization of Parameters in Electrochemical Machining Operation

Abstract

Electrochemical Machining is a non-traditional machining process which is used to machine difficult-to-machine materials such as super alloys, Ti-alloys, stainless steel etc. The basic working principle is based on Faraday law of electrolysis due to which the material removal takes place atom by atom by the process of electrolysis. This experiment highlights features of the development of a comprehensive mathematical model for correlating the interactive and higher order influences of various machining parameters on the dominant machining criteria i.e. the material removal rate (MRR), surface roughness (SR) and overcut (OC) phenomenon through Response Surface Method (RSM) method using the pertinent experimental data as obtained by experiment. The present work has been undertaken to find the material removal rate, surface roughness and overcut by electrochemical dissolution of an anodically polarized work piece (AISI304 stainless steel) with a copper electrode of hexagonal cross section. Experiments were conducted to analyse the influence of machining parameters such as feed rate, voltage and electrolyte concentration. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is employed to indicate the level of significance of machining parameters. It is observed that concentration is the most significant factor for response of material removal rate and in case of surface roughness voltage is the most significant factor. For response of overcut, the voltage is most significant factor.