| Abstract: | Surface finishing is one of the most important processes in mould and die making. This process is necessary not only for smoothing the surface of die or mould, but also for removing the surface layer, which has been damaged by the preceding machining process and finally improve the performances and lifetime of moulds to a large extent. It has been reported that between 30% and 40% of the total time required to manufacture a die or mold is spent on finishing operations, most of which are performed by skilled workers employing traditional techniques. At present, key problems in mould and die finishing technology can improve the finishing efficiency, consistency and quality at reduced costs. A new and high efficiency unconventional finishing technology, pulse electrochemical finishing was introduced. Experiments were done in neutral nitrate electrolytes. The influence of electrolyte composition, intereletrode gap, finishing time, flow quality, current density, compositions of steel materials and pulse parameters on the resulting surface finishing was investigated. Results indicate that pulse parameters have important influence on operations finishing and the proper selection of pulse parameters can lead to both good smoothing efficiency and surface quality at low costs. |
