electrochemical machining (ecm): an experimental investigation in to material removal rate (mrr) and volume efficiency (ev)

Electrochemical machining (ecm) is one of the non-conventional manufacturing techniques that can easily machine metals, especially hard and brittle metals, by a non-contact tool. although this technique has some advantages such as machining complicated shapes, machining with no residual stress, acceptable surface finishing and low tool wear, due to some reasons it has not been completely commercialized yet. there are several combinations of ecm parameters which are well known to achieve the advantages of this process. the purpose of this research is to investigate into material removal rate (mrr) and volume efficiency (ev) of the ecm process. for this purpose, a 4 mm-thick mild steel sheet was drilled by ecm with using a 0.64 mm diameter stainless steel needle tool, nacl electrolyte and various combination of process parameters. the volume of all holes drilled by different condition were obtained. then, mrr and ev were achieved. the results of this research indicate that in the range of employed parameters, the efficiency of tool feed rate (ef) in these experiments varies from 0.00079 to 0.00374 mm/j. the removed volume differs from 2.7 to 9.2 mm3. the mrr ranges between 0.02 and 0.062 mm3/s and the volume efficiency (ev) varies from 0.00083 to 0.00303 mm3/j.