Effect of pulse frequency and duty cycle on electrochemical dissolution behavior of multi-tip array tool electrode for reusability in the ECDM process

This article presents an experimental investigation to obtain the uniform tool tips of the worn tools' after the electrochemical discharge machining (ECDM) processing using electrochemical machining process (ECM). Usage of multi-tip array tool electrodes in the ECDM process to fabricate microarray holes improves the process productivity; however, due to the non-uniform tool wear, these multi-tip array tools have limited reusability. The ECM experiments were performed at a constant voltage of 8 V, 10% sulphuric acid as the electrolyte medium, and spherical shaped electrode as the cathode. Initially, a comparative analysis between continuous DC power supply and pulse DC power supply was investigated to evaluate the dissolution behavior of the array tool electrode. The influence of pulse frequency and duty cycle on the reduction of tip length and size was also investigated. The experimental results found that the pulse frequency of 50 kHz and 30% duty cycle exhibited the most appropriate combination for uniform dissolution of the 3 x 3 array tool electrode. Further, a case study was also performed to evaluate the performance of the 3 x 3 array tool electrode for the ECDM applications using the array tool electrode made using continuous DC and pulse DC power supplies. [GRAPHICS] .