Improving performance of macro electrolyte jet machining of TC4 titanium alloy: Experimental and numerical studies

Abstract Electrolyte jet machining (EJM) is a promising method for shaping titanium alloys due to its lack of tool wear, thermal and residual stress, and cracks and burrs. Recently, macro-EJM has attracted increasing attention for its high efficiency in machining wide grooves or planes. However, macro-EJM generates large amounts of electrolytic products, thereby increasing the difficulty of rapid product removal with a standard tool and reducing the surface quality. Therefore, for enhanced product transport, a novel tool with a back inclined end face was proposed for macro-EJM of TC4 titanium alloy. For comparison, also proposed were ones with a standard flat end face, a front inclined end face, and both front and back inclined end faces. The flow field distributions of all proposed tools were simulated numerically, and experiments were also conducted to validate the simulation results. The results show that one with a 5° back inclined end face can decrease the low-velocity flow zone in the machining area and increase the high-velocity flow zone at the back end of tool, thereby promoting rapid product removal. A relatively smooth bright-white groove surface was obtained. The same tool also resulted in the highest machining depth and material removal rate among the tested ones. In addition, rapid product removal was beneficial to the subsequent processing. Because of its rapid product removal, the machining depth and material removal rate during deep groove machining using the tool with a 5° back inclined end face were respectively 7% and 14% higher than those produced using a standard one. Moreover, the lowest bottom height difference of 0.027 mm can be obtained when the step-over value was 8.2 mm, and a plane with a depth of 0.285 mm and a bottom height difference of 0.03 mm was fabricated using the tool with a 5° back inclined end face.