Experimental study of special purpose stainless steel on electrochemical machining of electrolyte composition

It is difficult for the traditional processing technology to process refractory material. This paper, through the orthogonal array experiment, studied the NaNO₃ and NaClO₃ electrolyte composition concentration, electrolyte pressure, applied voltage, and feed rate in electrochemial machining (ECM) of the novel special purpose S-03 stainless steel material. The machining efficiency, workpiece surface roughness, and side gap between cathode and anode workpiece were investigated. A material removal rate (MRR) of 48 mm³/min, a surface roughness of 2.0 μm, and a side gap of 0.25 mm were achieved under the optimal conditions of 20 V and an electrolyte composition concentration of 178 g/l NaNO₃ and 41 g/l NaClO₃. The cathode feed rate and the electrolyte pressure were set to 0.4 mm/min and 0.8 Mpa, respectively. Giving the same voltage, with an increasing cathode feed rate, the MRR was shown to increase, while the surface roughness value and the side gap decreased. At the same cathode feed rate and the MRR decreased, while the side gap and the surface roughness increased as the electrochemical machining applied voltage increased. This study demonstrated that using optimal concentration electrolyte composition is a simple, low-cost, and feasible approach to improve the efficiency and surface quality for the processing of the novel stainless steel S-03.