electro chemical deburring machines
Using Electro Chemical Deburring Machines
Electro chemical deburring is the use of electro chemical deburring machines to deburr precision workpieces and edges that are hard-to-reach, such as intersecting holes. The process uses a salt or glycol solution and electricity to dissolve the burr. The electrical current is applied with a specialized tool to reach the burr location. Burrs are removed in 5 to 10 seconds, while the rest of the workpiece is unaffected.
Electrochemical machining (ECM) also uses electrical energy to remove material. An electrolytic cell is created in an electrolyte medium, with the tool as the cathode and the workpiece as the anode. A high-amperage, low-voltage current is used to dissolve the metal and to remove it from the workpiece, which must be electrically conductive. ECM is essentially a deplating process that utilizes the principles of electrolysis. The ECM tool is positioned very close to the workpiece and a low voltage, high amperage DC current is passed between the two via an electrolyte. Material is removed from the workpiece and the flowing electrolyte solution washes the ions away. These ions form metal hydroxides which are removed from the electrolyte solution by centrifugal separation. Both the electrolyte and the metal sludge are then recycled.Unlike traditional cutting methods, workpiece hardness is not a factor, making ECM suitable for difficult-to-machine materials. Takes such forms as electrochemical grinding, electrochemical honing and electrochemical turning.
The unique advantage of electrochemical surface treatment is the ability to solve production manufacturing problems that are either too expensive, time consuming or impossible by conventional or traditional methods, such as deburring and/or radiusing internal or external edges and intersections, Drilling internal holes into cavities with no burr creation, creating internal cavities and contours, forming internal chambers and transfer ports and polishing internal and external surfaces to near mirror finishes.
The tooling in electrochemical surface treatment, known as the Cathode, does not come into contact with the workpiece there is virtually no tool wear in the process, typical deburring and polishing times are extremely fast; 10-30 seconds for most applications and the process can be applied to small volumes and large equally well with scalability up to I part per 5 seconds.
Metal surface treatments vary, when it comes to deburring a component internally or externally, ECD – electro chemical deburring machines- offers a very cost effective and efficient solution. Normally the process will be done with constant current or constant voltage. To get a better surface finish, it is possible to use pulse current. This could also be done after the constant current machining.Electrochemical deburring differs from other metal surface treatments in that the cathode does not move during the process and the machining time is normally between 15 and 30 seconds. Other current examples of this process in production are machining internal fuel cavities in diesel fuel injector nozzles and bodies, drilling internal cross holes in pistons, forming rifling in gun barrels, removing feeder rods from hard material aerospace castings, shaping turbine blades and blisks in jet engines and gas turbines and machining high pressure recesses in common rail pump bodies.
