A step towards the in-process monitoring for electrochemical microdrilling

The electrochemical micromachining appears to be a promising candidate as a future micromachining technique that utilizes high frequency pulses for micron- to nanoscale material dissolution. This article presents a step towards the in-process monitoring based on waveforms generated during electrochemical micromachining. An attempt has been taken to correlate between the waveforms generated during machining and experimental outcomes such as material removal rate, machining time, and the dimensions of the microholes fabricated on commercially available nickel plate with prefabricated tungsten microtools. An electrical function generator is used as a signal source and a digital storage oscilloscope is provided for observing the nature of electrical pulses used and recording the waveforms generated during machining. The waveforms are subgrouped depending on the parameters used and analyzed to correlate the waveform shape and the machining outcomes. The digital storage oscilloscope also facilitates for observing the short-circuit condition which may occur during microdrilling. These results show that the shape of the waveforms and their corresponding values are in good agreement with the material removal rate, machining time, and on the dimension of fabricated microholes. Therefore, the proposed monitoring technique can be employed as a predictive tool in electrochemical micromachining.