Vibration-Assisted Axial Nozzle Jet Flow Wire Electrochemical Machining for Micromachining

Abstract Wire electrochemical machining (WECM) has the capability to produce metal microcomponents with high aspect ratios. However, because interelectrode gap mass transportation of electrolyte is not homogeneous due to inappropriate and insufficient flushing, novel vibration-assisted axial nozzle jet flow WECM is introduced, and a unique experimental setup and tool are created. A comparison of the axial flow system, axial flow with PZT vibration with this newly developed flushing strategy was made. The effect of the most influencing parameters, i.e., pulse voltage, wire feed rate, and duty ratio, on the machining results of each flushing strategy being analyzed. The improvement of 36% slit width reduction and 75% increase in machining accuracy compared to axial flow WECM and 23% slit width reduction and 40% increase in machining accuracy compared to axial flow with PZT vibration WECM was observed using this novel technique with microslits machined on 100 μm thick stainless steel SS304. The effect of nozzle diameter and workpiece nozzle stand-off distances on slit width machining results has been investigated. The average slit width is 115 μm at 0.4 mm nozzle diameter, and it rises to 143 μm at 1 mm nozzle diameter. The average slit width is 110 μm at a 5 mm workpiece nozzle stand-off distance, and it rises to 145 μm at a 20 mm workpiece nozzle stand-off distance. This research report also discusses microslit machining of NiTinol shape memory alloy for improving WECM performance.