Optimization of maskless electrochemical microtexturing

Surface microtexturing method is utilized to improve the vital functions in various engineering disciplines like tribological, biocompatibility, and sustainability. The generation of microtexturing is difficulty by other advanced micromachining methods such as heat affecected zone in laser micromachining and micro electric discharge machining, and low production efficiency in abrasive jet micromachining. The microtexturing with micro circular pattern, generated using maskless electrochemical microtexturing in indigenously developed experimental setup is investigated. The developed setup consists of experimental cell, power connections and electrolyte flow system. The SU-8 2150 insulated textured tool is more advantageous for producing microstructures. Hence, it was reused many times for microtextured production. The influence of various process parameters like voltage, duty ratio, frequency, inter electrode gap (IEG), flow rate and machining time on numerous important microtexturing characteristics such as material removal rate (MRR) overcut, depth and surface roughness is investigated. Furthermore, a new and efficient method i.e. evaluation based on distance from average solution (EDAS) was used to identify the optimal combination of microtexturing process parameters. The achieved optimal parameters are voltage of 10 V, duty ratio of 40%, frequency of 5 kHz, IEG of 100 μm, flow rate of 5 m3/h and machining time of 5 minutes for manufacturing of accurate micropatterns. From the confirmation experiments using EDAS, the best machined characteristics are MRR of 5.2 mg/min, overcut of 25.41 µm, depth of 8.2 µm and surface roughness, Ra of 0.0278 µm.