Application Research on Powder Mixed EDM in Rough Machining

Powder Mixed Electric Discharge Machining (PMEDM) has different mechanism from conventional EDM, which can improve the surface roughness and surface quality distinctly and to obtain nearly mirror surface effects. It is a useful finish machining method and is researched and applied by many countries. However there are little research on rough machining of PMEDM. Experiments show that PMEDM machining makes discharge breakdown easier, enlarges the discharge gaps and widens discharge passage, and at last forms even distributed and "large and shadow" shaped etched cavities. Because of much loss of discharge energy in the discharge gaps and reduction of ejecting force on the melted material, the machining efficiency gets lower and the surface roughness gets small in PMEDM machining in comparison with conventional EDM machining. This paper performs experimental research on the machining efficiency and surface roughness of PMEDM in rough machining. The machining efficiency of PMEDM can be highly increased by selecting proper discharge parameters (increasing peak current, reducing pulse width) with approximate surface roughness in comparison with conventional EDM machining. Although PMEDM can improve machining efficiency in rough efficiency, but a series of problems like electrode wear, efficiently separation of machined scraps from the powder mixed working fluid, should be solved before PMEDM machining is really applied in rough machining. Experiments result shows that powder mixed EDM machining can obviously improve machining efficiency at the same surface roughness by selecting proper discharging parameters, and can provide reference accordingly for the application of PMEDM machining technology in rough machining.

Magnetic Electrochemical Finishing Machining

How to improve the finishing efficiency and surface roughness have been all along the objective of research in electrochemical polishing. However, the research activity, i.e. during electrochemical polishing, directly introduce the magnetic field to study how the magnetic field influences on the finishing efficiency, quality and the electrochemical process in the field of finishing machining technology, is insufficient. When introducing additional magnetic field in the traditional electrochemical polishing, due to the co-action of Lorentz’ force and electric field force, the ions arriving the machined surface by way of a curvilinear motion result in the electric current density distribution on the surface even more non-uniform, then the dissolving velocity of the peak points or side faces and the diffusion velocity of the product are enhanced, and the forcible agitation is happened on the electrodes surface by magnetic field, the removal rate of peak points are still more greater, and efficiency is also still more higher. Compared with the electrochemical polishing, in the magnetic electrochemical finishing machining, the finishing speed at peak points is higher, but at valley points it is lower, therefore after machining, both the highness at peak points and finishing depth at valley points are smaller, the results are propitious to minish initial wear quantity caused by friction and wear when machined workpiece employing in practice, and increase contact stiffness of workpiece, and from the viewpoint of microcosmic theory, this phenomenon is also of advantage to reduce damage to substrate. It can also be seen from the equation presented in the paper that the track of ionic movement relates to the electrodes gap, potential and magnetic induction intensity and furthermore; under the given conditions, the movement also relate to the electrolyte. it can be inferred that there must be an optimum value in respect of the magnetic induction intensity influencing the efficiency of finishing machining, and at the same time, the rational matching among the interelectrodes voltage, gap sizes and magnetic induction intensity can raise the efficiency and quality as well as improve the surface roughness to the maximum. In short, the co-action of the Lorentz’ force and electric field force change the motion track of anions and make more uneven distribution of the electric current density on the anodes surface, thus the dissolving velocity and product diffusion velocity of the peak points or side faces of the anode are raised. All those and the forced agitation of magnetic field towards the electrode surface are the principal mechanism for surface finishing. This point has been proved from the experimental results in this paper.

Influence mechanism of machining angles on force induced error and their selection in five axis bullnose end milling

In the machining of complicated surfaces,the cutters with large length/diameter ratios are used widely and the deformation of the machining system is one of the principal error sources.During the process planning stage,the cutting direction angle,the cutter lead and tilt angles are usually optimized to minimize the force induced error.It may lead to a low machining efficiency for bullnose end mills,as the material removal rates are different largely for different machining angles.In this paper,the influence mechanism of the machining angles on the force induced error is studied based on the models of the instantaneous cutting force when the cutter flute traveling through the cutting contact point and the stiffness of the machining system.In order to evaluate the machining angles,the force induced error/efficiency indicator(FEI)is defined as the division of the force induced error and the equal volume sphere of the removed material.FEI is dimensionless,with the lower FEI,the lower force induced error and the higher machining efficiency.For optimal selection of the machining angles,the critical FEI is calculated with the constraint of force induced error and the desired material removal rate,and the critical FEI separate the set of the machining angles into two subsets.After the feed rate scheduling process,the machining angles in the optimal subset would have higher machining accuracy and efficiency,while the machining angles in the other subset have lower machining accuracy and efficiency.Through the machining experiment of five axis machining and freeform surface machining,the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed FEI method is verified with a bullnose end mill,which can improve the machining efficiency with the constraint of force induced error.

Ion beam figuring of continuous phase plates based on the frequency filtering process

Ion beam figuring （IBF） technology is an effective technique for fabricating continuous phase plates （CPPs） with small feature structures. This study proposes a multi-pass IBF approach with different beam diameters based on the frequency filtering method to improve the machining accuracy and efficiency of CPPs during IBF. We present the selection principle of the frequency filtering method, which incorporates different removal functions that maximize material removal over the topographical frequencies being imprinted. Large removal functions are used early in the fabrication to figure the surface profile with low frequency. Small removal functions are used to perform final topographical correction with higher fre- quency and larger surface gradient. A high-precision surface can be obtained as long as the filtering frequency is suitably selected. This method maximizes the high removal efficiency of the large removal function and the high corrective capability of the small removal function. Consequently, the fast convergence of the machining accuracy and efficiency can be achieved.