The tool design and experiments on electrochemical machining of a blisk using multiple tube electrodes

Electrochemical machining (ECM) is an effective method for machining a blisk. Because a blisk often has several tens to hundreds of blades and only one channel can be machined at a time using current methods, the machining time is long. A highly efficient ECM method for machining the channels of a blisk using multiple tube electrodes is presented. The method involves the synchronous movement of several designed metal tube electrodes toward the workpiece for the simultaneous electrochemical machining of multiple channels. To optimize the flow fields, different shapes of the electrolyte outlet were designed for the tube wall, namely, a continuous outlet in the form of a long and narrow slit and intermittent outlets comprising multiple holes or slits. The distribution of the groups of holes or slits was optimized. The simulation results showed that the electrolyte outlet mode of the multiple slits was more suitable. To determine the optimal parameters of the ECM process, experiments were performed using different electrolytes, outlet shapes, and feed rates. It was found that the developed electrolyte outlet could be used to enhance the machining stability and the quality of the produced blisk. An integrated blisk was finally machined using the proposed method.