Research on Improving the Taper of Hole Processing by Insulation Coating of ECM Cathode

Abstract

Electrochemical machining (ECM) is widely used in metal parts processing because of its high processing speed, good surface quality, no stress and deformation of the workpiece after processing, and no tool loss. However, when using electrochemical drilling, the taper of the hole is large due to the secondary electrolysis phenomenon. Therefore, this paper aims to reduce the taper of the anode workpiece hole by studying the degree of insulation of the cathode sidewall. The processing of the holes is performed by insulating coating the cathode structures to form different conductive radial heights h0. A multiphysics (electric field, flow field, temperature field and mathematical field) model for simulating ECM machining process using a moving cathode tool is proposed in different modes of conductive radial height h0. The mathematical relationship between the height h0 and the taper of the machined hole is established to obtain the optimum machining method.