Analysis of Microsurface Characteristics during Micro-Electrochemical Texturing on Stainless Steel

Abstract

A novel approach of Micro-electrochemical Texturing (MET) is a realistic substitute for generating surface textures of machined surface. Several conventional and non-conventional techniques i.e., embossing, sand blasting, pinning, LBM, EDM etc. are available for generating microsurface textures, but creates several problems to generate microtextured surfaces which reduce the quality and lower the productivity. To overcome these limitations, this research proposes a unique microsurface texturing method namely, micro-electrochemical texturing, based on electrochemical reaction. Due to the high flexibility of the micro-electrochemical texturing system, micro-texturing features, surface roughness and its performance can be easily changed by varying the micro-electrochemical parameters. In this research paper, this process is developed to fabricate the microsurface textures on stainless steel specimens economically with less time. The experimental results of surface characteristics generated on workpiece utilizing the developed setup with vertical cross flow electrolyte circulation system in micro-electrochemical texturing method are presented. The effects of duty ratio and voltage on performance criteria i.e., material removal rate (MRR), taper kerf angle and surface roughness are investigated. The obtained overall surface roughness value on the stainless-steel samples machined by micro-electrochemical texturing technique is 0.08μm.