Experimental investigation to improve the removal rate of material in ECDM process by utilizing different tool electrode shapes

Abstract

The utilization of glass materials in MEMS application escalates over the past decades due to its peculiar properties which generates the need to produce micro-features on glass with supreme surface quality. ECDM has successfully evinced the micro-machining of glass material in which removal rate takes place through thermal erosion that includes local joule heating of the glass work material followed by chemical etching action. Besides, numerous intrinsic difficulties are there that required to be engulfed during micro-hole drilling process such as low material removal rate at higher machining depth (due to non-availability of electrolyte in hydrodynamic regime) and poor machining repeatability. This present study investigates the machining performance of ECDM process by using different shapes of the tool electrode i.e., pointed and cylindrical tool in order to improve the material removal rate. Experiments were performed according to taguchi’s L9 orthogonal array and response measurements (Material Removal Rate or MRR) were analyzed through S/N ratio to identify the optimum range of process parameters. Results exhibited that pointed tool produces more uniform spark consistencies and also enhances the flow of electrolyte; thereby results into high material removal rate due rapid gas film formation. Pointed tool demonstrates the improvement in MRR with applied voltage being the most dominant parameter(64.83%) followed by electrolyte concentration(22.17%) and Inter-electrode gap (3.30%) at higher level of all three parameters (Optimum : A3B3C3). On the basis of experimental investigation, micro-holes were successfully drilled on glass material with improved material removal rate.