doi: 10.3850/978-981-11-0749-8_712
Analysis of the Reproducibility of Jet-ECM Point Removals on Defined Shape Deviations
André Martin1, Henning Zeidler1, Matthias Hackert-Oschätzchen1 and Andreas Schubert1,2
1Professorship Micro manufacturing Technology, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technische Universitaet, Chemnitz, 09107, Germany
2Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU, Reichenhainer Strasse 88, 09126, Chemnitz, Germany
Abstract
Usually, the reproducibility is used in metrology tasks to describe unsystematic variations. While this characteristic is usually determined in metrology issues, it is often discussed but not determined in case of manufacturing processes. The reproducibility of a manufacturing process describes the deviations of the machining results applying the same set-up and constant processing parameters. Provided that the reproducibility is well-known, a detailed prediction about the machining result would be possible.
In this study, the reproducibility of electrochemically machined micro-structures is examined. For that purpose point erosions without axis movement were generated by Jet Electrochemical Machining (Jet-ECM). The calotte-shaped removals were machined in stainless steel 1.4301 and the resulting removal geometries were measured by confocal microscopy in order to determine their lateral and vertical dimensions. Afterwards, the measurement results were evaluated statistically by calculating the frequency distribution and the density function of the corresponding normal distribution. The size of the standard deviation was used to rate the reproducibility and the position of the average to rate the accuracy of the machining process. The probing strategy for the detection of the initial working gap was found out to be a decisive cause for systematic deviations.
Keywords: Electrochemical Machining, Jet-ECM, Electrolyte jet, Localized anodic dissolution, Micro-manufacturing, Reproducibility, Repeatability, Defined shape deviation.
