Method for the Characterisation of the Material Removal in Modulated Pulsed Electrochemical Machining

The electrochemical precision machining (PECM) is an established manufacturing process which is based on the of the anodic metal dissolution applying a pulsed current and an oscillating cathode. A challenge for the design of applications is the material-specific removal rate. In this study, the material removal is characterised of a corrosion and wear resistant tool steel (1.4112 / X90CrMoV18) applying PECM with two different pulse widths. Furthermore, the material removal is characterised for an advanced PECM technology where multiple modulated pulses are applied during one cathode oscillation cycle (MPECM). Therefore, this study presents an adaptation of the standards DIN SPEC 91399 and VDE SPEC 90028 for the characterisation of the material removal rate applying a commercial PECM machine tool type PEM 800 S from PEMTec. Experiments were carried out utilising 2 sets of parameters for MPECM achieving a duty cycle of up to 0.64. Subsequently, the resulting material removal rates and current efficiencies are discussed for the PECM and MPECM sets.