Design of process device and flow field of array electrochemical machining for small-size inner wall ring grooves
摘要
An array electrochemical machining technology is proposed to increase machining efficiency of inner wall ring grooves of hard-to-cut metallic material (1J116). With this technology, eight small-size inner wall ring grooves can be machined synchronously. For array electrochemical machining, it is challenging to design a proper process device and keep it have stable flow field at multiple machining gaps, which is the prerequisite to guarantee machining consistency and stability. In this paper, three structure schemes of the process device were designed with equipartition method. For these three structure schemes, their geometric models of the electrolyte flow field were established, and flow field distribution was simulated by using the k-ε turbulence model respectively. Simulation results show that the machining consistency and stability of structure scheme II are the best among the three structure schemes. Moreover, in structure scheme II, both the flow length (L) in installation tube and the intersection angles of shunt tube (α1) and rectifier tube (α2) were optimized to ensure electrolyte stability at the machining gaps. The study results show that the consistency and stability of the flow field are preferable when the intersection angles (α1 and α2) are 60° and the flow length in installation tube is 20 mm. Finally, the verification experiments were performed, and the experimental results corresponded to the simulation results. This study provides a new high-efficiency machining strategy for array machining for inner wall structures of hard-to-cut metallic material.