Experimental study of overcut in electrochemical micromachining for 304 stainless steel

This paper presents an electrochemical micromachining (EMM) system developed with a inter electrode gap control. Preliminary experiments have been conducted to identify the parameters and their range for EMM of 304 stainless steel (SS). The effect of machining voltage, pulse on-time, machining current, and electrolyte concentration on overcut was investigated. The range / level for the different parameters that yielded minimum overcut were identified for further investigation and optimization. Taguchi experimental design technique has been applied to determine the optimal combination of the machining parameters levels. According to the Taguchi's quality design concepts, an L ₁₆ orthogonal array was used. The optimal combinations of machining parameters levels for minimum overcut were determined as machining voltage at 12 V, pulse on-time at 25 ms, machining current at 0.8 A and electrolyte concentration of 0.29 mole/I.