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#043 Electrolytic Etching - Electrolytic Grinding Applications - 1

Category : Metal etching
May28, 2010
(6) Surface finish roughness of electrolytic grinding

General steel alloys can easily be machined and ground by conventional means and seldom require electrolytic grinding. But electrolytic grinding is a excellent alternative in case of heavy cutting high speed steel alloys where heat damage risks are present, for easily bent and damaged thin plate materials and flat grinding of honeycomb structure material, and for vanadium rich high speed steel alloys that cause heavy wear on grinding wheels. Also, the process does not cause any burrs rendering quite attractive for hypodermic needles and multi-layer materials.

[Fig.1] Electrolytic grinding of hypodermic needles - Before (left) and After (right)

The most applicable example for electrolytic grinding is for carbide cutting tools. Such hard-to-grind high hardness material grinding can gain the most from increased processing speeds.

[Fig.2] Electrolytic grinding example of a reamer tool

[Fig.2] shows an example of electrolytic grinding of a reamer tool. As can be seen in [Fig.2], the carbide and high speed steel blades, 1.5mm thick/2.1mm wide, are ground in a single path. Usage conditions of a diamond grinding wheel with 60~80 grain size and electrolyte containing NaNO2 and the results are shown in a chart within [Fig.1].

With conventional grinding methods where removal amount is small per one tool path, multiple positioning is needed for multiple tool rotations. But for the electrolytic grinding, cutting depth can be made deep and all the material can be removed with a single path. Tool position corrections can be made less frequent since the diamond wheel wear is only 15% or so of the standard wheels.

In addition, the electrolytic grinding generates little heat. For materials that are problematic with conventional grinding methods due to heat distortion and work hardening, such as turbine blades for jet engines, bucket material, nuclear reactor components, and various magnetic materials, electrolytic grinding offers advantages.

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