Investigation on Wire Electrochemical Micro Machining

Abstract

Wire electrochemical micro machining (WEMM) using the online-fabricated micro wire electrode is proposed as a new method of micro machining. Based on electrochemical principle, the mechanism of nanosecond pulses WEMM was investigated. The hardware of the control system was founded using devices of virtual instruments, and the software of the system was designed based on Labwindows/CVI. The micrometer scale wire electrode was online fabricated, the diameter of wire electrode was real-time monitored by precisely measuring the variation in resistance of the electrode, and it is possible that accomplish the fabrication of wire electrode and the following processes continuously in the same machining system. The relations between the machining accuracy and parameters, such as velocity of feed forward and pulses parameters was experimentally studied, and a series of high-aspect-ration micro structure and multi-microgrooves were fabricated. The research of the paper sets up a firm foundation for application of the proposed wire electrochemical micro-machining.