Experimental studies on improving the performance of electrochemical machining of high carbon, high chromium die steel using jet patterns

Electrochemical machining (ECM) is a non-traditional process used mainly to cut hard or difficult-to-cut metals, where the application of a more traditional process is not convenient. Stiff market competition and ever-growing demand for better, durable and reliable products has brought about a material revolution, which has greatly expanded the families of difficult-to-machine materials namely highcarbon,high-chromium die steel; stainless steel and superalloys. This investigation attempts to analyze the effect of electrolyte distribution on material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (SR) on electrochemical machining of high-carbon, high-chromium die steel using NaCl aqueous solution. Three electrolyte jet patterns namely straight jet in circular, inclined jet in circular and straight jet in spiral were used for this experimentation. The results reveal that electrolyte distribution significantly improves the performance of ECM and the straight jet in spiral pattern performs satisfactorily in obtaining better MRR and surface roughness.