Development of a Bore Using Jet Electrochemical Machining (JECM) in SS316 Alloy

Jet Electrochemical Machining (JECM) has established itself as one of the major alternatives of machining conductive materials that are difficult to machine and to generate complex contours. Some of the components used in aerospace and gas turbine blades are to be machined without any defects, residual stress, and tool wear which is not possible or is difficult to achieve using conventional machining processes. In electrochemical machining, the workpiece and tool are submerged in electrolyte, it is observed that while machining, metal oxide is formed in between the electrode and workpiece, that negatively affects the geometrical features of the hole produced. In this paper, the effect of producing a jet of electrolyte using a hollow electrode and their effect on material removal rate, circularity, and conicity (geometrical quality of holes) is studied. Experiments were conducted in two different modes, one set of experiments were conducted with flushing and the other set is done without flushing. Experiments were performed by varying the following input parameters—voltage, electrolyte concentration, duty ratio, and the output parameters considered is material removal rate, circularity, and conicity. The flushing experiments were conducted at a constant velocity. From the results, it is observed that experiments conducted using flushing operation showed higher MRR, lower circularity, and lower conicity. Experiments are analyzed and optimized by Taguchi optimization Technique.