Experimental investigation of the electrochemical micromachining process of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy under the influence of magnetic field

Abstract An attempt has been made to study the influence of magnetic field on the micro hole machining of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy using electrochemical micromachining (ECMM) process. The presence of magneto hydro dynamics (MHD) is accomplished with the aid of external magnetic field (neodymium magnets) in order to improve the machining accuracy and the performance characteristics of ECMM. Close to ideal solution for magnetic and nonmagnetic field ECMM process, the parameters used are as follows: concentration electrolyte of 15 g/l; peak current of 1.35 A; pulse on time of 400 s; and duty factor of 0.5. An improvement of 11.91–52.43% and 23.51–129.68% in material removal rate (MRR) and 6.03–21.47% and 18.32–33.09% in overcut (OC) is observed in ECMM of titanium alloy under the influence of attraction and repulsion magnetic field, respectively, in correlation with nonmagnetic field ECMM process. A 55.34% surface roughness factor reduction is ascertained in the hole profile in magnetic field-ECMM in correlation with electrochemical machined titanium alloy under nonmagnetic field environment. No machining related stress is induced in the titanium alloy, even though environment of electrochemical machining process has been enhanced with the presence of magnetic field. A slight surge in the compressive residual factor, aids in surge of passivation potential of titanium alloy, resulting in higher resistance to outside environment.