A complex variable approach to electrochemical machining problems

SummaryElectrochemical machining is the name given to the process of eroding metal by electrolysis. The anode in this process is a workpiece from which metal is eroded and the cathode is a shaped machine tool which is fed towards the work-piece (see Fig. 1). Erosion takes place when an electric potential is applied across the electrolyte filled gap between the tool and the workpiece. The electrolyte is pumped through the gap in order to remove the products of erosion.In this paper an attempt is made, under certain simplifying assumptions, to determine the resulting shape of the workpiece and the gap-sizes between the tool and workpiece. Basically two problems are treated in this paper; one for a plane-faced tool with complete insulation on the tool sides (see Fig. 2) and the other for an uninsulated straight sided tool (see Fig. 5). An exact complex variable technique is used and only minimal computer usage is required for final evaluations from derived analytic formulae.