Micro wire electrochemical cutting by using in situ fabricated wire electrode

This study develops a micro wire electrochemical cutting process. Because of no electrode wear in this process a very thin metal wire can be used as the wire electrode. The tungsten wire electrode with the diameter of 5 mu m is electrochemically in situ fabricated for the production of micro structures with the slit width of less than 20 mu m. Effects of process parameters on the wire diameter in the wire etching and on the gap variation in the electrochemical cutting have been studied theoretically and experimentally. Many complex micro metal parts with structures of several ten micrometers have been obtained.