Investigation on parametric effects on groove profile generated on Ti1023 titanium alloy by jet electrochemical machining

Ti1023 titanium alloy is widely used in various industries due to the excellent synthetic performance, but its machining processes are still being developed. Jet electrochemical machining, combining the advantages of electrochemical machining and numerical control technique, becomes a promising machining method for Ti1023 titanium alloy. Aiming to explore the feasibility for jet electrochemical machining of surface structure on Ti1023 titanium alloy, this work systematically studied the mechanism and parametric effects in a jet electrochemical machining process via simulation and experiments. Anodic polarization of Ti1023 titanium alloy in NaCl electrolyte reveals that the oxide layer removal potential reaches 4.7 V vs. SCE, and a long time application of high voltage is required to remove the oxide layer and achieve the desired dissolution state. A novel three-dimensional model accounting for this polarization behavior was developed to predict the machining performance. Through simulation and experiments, the process conditions were optimized as 24 V of applied voltage, 0.6 mm of inter-electrode gap, 2.1 L min−1 of electrolyte flow rate, and 25 μm s−1 of nozzle traveling rate. Using the selected parameters, a surface structure with an “S” shape can be efficiently machined on Ti1023 titanium alloy by jet electrochemical machining with controlled multi-dimensional nozzle motion.