Influence of ultrasonic vibrations on process performance of electrochemical honing

摘要

Electrochemical honing (ECH) is a novel variant of hybrid machining processes (HMPs). The key feature is that the distinct coupling of electrochemical machining (ECM) and honing provide a controlled functional surface generation and faster material removal rate in a single operation. In the present study, the influence of ultrasonic vibrations on process performance of ECH of bevel gears made of EN8 is investigated. An analysis of the process has been presented with suitable illustrations. Ultrasonic frequency and processing time were considered as the input variables while improvement in surface finish, material removal and geometrical accuracies were considered as the monitored output. The effectiveness of the process was investigated through experimental trials by conducting a comparison study between classical ECH and ultrasonic vibration-assisted ECH (UECH). The results confirm that improvements in surface roughness and martial removal rate are significantly higher than those obtained with classical ECH. The study further reveals that the scrubbing of the oxide layer is easier to be achieved and surface quality is obviously improved due to ultrasonic vibrations. The experimental results demonstrate that UECH gives 18.36 % improvement in average roughness, 9.31 % improvement in maximum roughness and 20 % improvement in material removal rate as compared with ECH.