Journal of Advanced Research 23 (2020) 151–161

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Advanced Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jare

Ultrasonic-assisted electrochemical drill-grinding of small holes with

high-quality
Xiangming Zhu a, Yong Liu a,⇑, Jianhua Zhang b, Kan Wang a, Huanghai Kong a
a
Associated Engineering Research Center of Mechanics & Mechatronic Equipment, Shandong University, Weihai City 264209, PR China
b
Key Laboratory of High Efficiency and Clean Mechanical Manufacture, Ministry of Education of China, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan City 250061,
PR China

g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

Diamond abrasives Insoluble products

Ultrasonic vibration

ˉ Passive film

ˇ UAECDG
ˇ

Substrate

Theoretical analysis experimental optimization

C C

(a) Inlet (b) outlet

(c) Surface roughness of C-C Cross Section.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Electrochemical drill-grinding (ECDG) is a compound machining technology, which combines
Received 24 October 2019 Electrochemical machining (ECM) with mechanical drill-grinding process. On this basis, a new method
Revised 11 February 2020 of machining small holes which called ultrasonic-assisted electrochemical drill-grinding (UAECDG) is
Accepted 13 February 2020
proposed. First, the principle of UAECDG is analyzed through analysis of UAECDG process and electro-
Available online 15 February 2020
chemical passivation behavior of materials. Second, the simulation of electrochemical drill-grinding pro-
cess was studied to illustrate the effect of ball-end electrode on reducing the hole taper and improving
Keywords:
the machining accuracy. Afterwards, several groups of experiments are conducted to analyze the influ-
Electrochemical drill-grinding
Stainless steel
ence of electrical parameters, ultrasonic amplitude and matching degree between electrolysis and
Ultrasonic-assisted mechanical grinding on the machining quality of small holes. Finally, small holes with diameter of
Surface roughness 1.1 ± 0.01 mm, surface roughness of 0.31 lm and taper of less than 0.6 degree were machined by
Small holes UAECDG, which revealed UAECDG is a promising compound machining technology to fabricate small
holes with high quality and high efficiency.
Ó 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Cairo University. This is an open access article
under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Peer review under responsibility of Cairo University.

⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (Y. Liu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jare.2020.02.010
2090-1232/Ó 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Cairo University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
152 X. Zhu et al. / Journal of Advanced Research 23 (2020) 151–161

Introduction grinding and ultrasonic impact. In addition, in this paper, ultra-

sonic vibration is added to the spindle and it is transmitted to
Small holes are widely used in aerospace, automobile, ship and the machining tool to produce periodic vibration, then disturbs
other industries, such as engine blades, combustion chambers, the electrolyte, so as to accelerate the renewal of electrolyte in
cooling rings, bottom plates and so on [1–4]. Generally speaking, the gap, then improve machining quality. The cavitation effect
holes with diameter of 0.3–3 mm are called small holes [5,6]. caused by ultrasound can produce lots of micro bubbles and then
Because the diameter of small holes is relatively small, and the collapse between the machining gap, resulting in shock wave gen-
machining materials, such as titanium alloy [7], nickel-based eration and accelerate erosion of materials [25,26], which is bene-
superalloy [8] and stainless steel [9], are usually difficult to ficial to improvement of machining efficiency. On the other hand,
machine, therefore, it is hard to realize high machining precision ultrasound can renew the electrolyte quickly to bring more stable
and surface roughness by mechanical methods, in which machin- machining environment [27].
ing tools also wear a lot [10]. In the field of non-traditional machin-
ing, laser machining and EDM will inevitably produce recast layer
Materials and methods
and micro-cracks on the machined surface, which is prone to stress
concentration and do great harm to the structure [11–14]. Conven-
The flow chart of work methodology is shown as Fig. 1. Pre-hole
tional ultrasonic-grinding machining can cause great wear and tear
machining is carried out on 304 stainless steel plate firstly, which
to abrasives, which is difficult to process materials with good plas-
uses cylindrical spiral electrodes for electrochemical drilling pro-
ticity and toughness. And Conventional ECM cannot meet the pro-
cess, the real picture of cathode tool for preparing pre-hole is
duction needs of high machining accuracy and high stability
shown as Fig. 2a. In order to prepare the pre-hole, it is necessary
[15,16].
to select reasonable machining parameters, which will signifi-
In order to solve the defect of single machining method, many
cantly affect the hole diameter, hole roundness and hole wall sur-
scholars combine different machining methods and put forward
face roughness of the pre-hole, and will affect the machining
various compound machining methods. Among them, electro-
allowance during the hole-enlarging process. If the machining
chemical grinding (ECG) is a compound machining method with
allowance of the pre hole is too large, the mechanical grinding will
many advantages, such as low induced stress, high machining effi-
be too strong, resulting in low machining efficiency and poor sur-
ciency, large depths of cut, and high machining precision [17–19].
face quality of the inner wall of the hole. If the pre hole machining
During ECG process, with the feeding of machining tools, some of
allowance is too small, the mechanical grinding effect in UAECDG
the substrates are dissolved, some of them are passivated and a
process will be weakened, which will not significantly improve
thin and brittle passivation film is formed on the surface of the
the machining quality. Therefore, the parameters for preparing
substrate. The abrasive particles at the outer end of the tool contact
the pre-hole need to be selected reasonably, and the optimized
the passivation film and some electrochemical product which
parameters are shown in Table 1. After pre-hole with certain
adsorbed on the surface of passivation film, then scrape them off.
machining accuracy and surface quality is machined, the pre-
On the material removal principle of electrochemical drill-
hole is enlarged by means of ultrasonic-assisted electrochemical
grinding, Ge et al. [20] consider that ECM dissolves the anode
drill-grinding.
workpiece at high applied voltage which is 20 V and high feed rate
which is from 0.5 mm/min to 2.4 mm/min, massive of electro-
chemical products adsorbed on the surface of the substrate are UAECDG setup and process
scraped off by abrasive particles instead of the passive film formed.
At the same time, due to the removal of the easily dissolved mate- As shown in Fig. 3a, the small holes are machined by ultrasonic-
rial, some insoluble components in the anode substrate materials assisted electrochemical drill-grinding set up. While the ball-end
are gradually exposed. All these insoluble components and electro- electrode rotates continuously, it is accompanied by downward
chemical products are removed by grinding. On the tool electrode feeding and periodic vibration. It can be seen that the ball-end
of ECG, Niu et al. [21] employed an abrasive tool with arrayed electrode is equipped with diamond abrasive particles, which are
holes, and after finish machining with ECG, the surface roughness added to the ball-end by electrodeposition as shown in Fig. 2b.
decreased dramatically, from 1.65lm to 0.648lm. On the abra- The number of diamond abrasives is 1200#. The electrolyte is sup-
sives wear in ECG technology, some scholars put forward that dia- plied by side spraying combined with pre-filling in the electrolyte
mond is the common abrasive for grinding, compared with tank.
mechanical grinding, the tool loss of ECG with diamond is 4 to In UAECDG process as shown in Fig. 3b, a ball-end electrode
15 times smaller [22]. On the practical application of ECG, Wang with diamond abrasive particles is used as tool cathode which
et al. [23] use it to improve MoP microparticles’ surface states to rotating at a high speed and ultrasonic vibrating along the axis
improve its catalytic activity. direction. The ball-end has a larger diameter than the pre-
The another advantage of ECG is that most of oxide/passivation machined hole. Due to the passivation of metals in passive elec-
layer on the workpiece is removed by grinding (5–10% of material trolyte, a kind of soft passive oxide film is formed and adhering
removal), so harsh/harmful electrolytes are not needed to dissolve to the material surface with the electrochemical anodic dissolution
passivation layer [24]. However, ECG will produce lots of electro- of metal materials. With the feed of ball-end electrode, this passive
chemical products and insoluble materials, which will lead to the oxide film which negative to electrochemical reaction is soon
deterioration of the machining environment and may cause removed by the diamond abrasives so that the fresh metal materi-
short-circuit phenomenon. In order to solve this problem, this als can be exposed for the consecutive electrochemical reaction.
paper proposed ultrasound-assisted electrochemical drill- Therefore, the process of material removal includes both mechan-
grinding (UAECDG). It is a kind of compound machining method ical grinding and electrochemical reaction.
that uses electrochemical reaction to produce passivation film on Fig. 3c is the schematic diagram of UAECDG. Before the process
the surface of material, and removes the passivation film through of UAECDG, a pre-machined hole with a diameter of D0 has been
mechanical grinding and ultrasonic vibration to expose the fabricated by ECM. In UAECDG, the material is electrochemically
machined substrate again, so that it can be machined under the and mechanically removed by the tool’s ball-end with a diameter
alternating process of electrochemical machining, mechanical of d which is larger than the pre-machined hole diameter D0 . As
 X. Zhu et al. / Journal of Advanced Research 23 (2020) 151–161 153

304 stainless steel plate ECM

Pre-holes
Electrochemical behavior of materials

Machining simulation of ECDG

UAECDG Influence of ultrasonic vibration

Matching of ECM and grinding

Final holes with good quality

Fig. 1. Flow chart of work methodology.

(a) Cylindrical spiral cathode tool for (b) Ball-end cathode tool for UAECDG.
preparing pre-hole.
Fig. 2. Real picture of cathode tool.

shown in Fig. 3c, the process of UAECDG includes the phases of sis, the mechanical grinding is not able to remove the passive oxide
ECM, ECG, and the secondary electrolysis. Because of too large film effectively which is negative to the electrochemical reaction,
machining gap during the phases of ECM and secondary electroly- so that only a small number of material removal occurs during
154 X. Zhu et al. / Journal of Advanced Research 23 (2020) 151–161

Table 1 Electrochemical behavior of 304 stainless steel

Parameters for preparing pre-hole.

Item value 304 stainless steel has a passive behavior in passive electrolytes
Peak voltage 7V such as NaNO3 solution [28]. In passivation of metal material, a
Feed rate 0.4 lm/s kind of passive oxide film is formed and adhering to material sur-
Electrolyte 10 wt% NaNO3 face, the passivation film on stainless steel surface are mainly chro-
Rotation speed 6000r/min
mium and iron oxides / hydroxides [29]. This passive oxide film
Pulse period 10 ls
Duty cycle 0.25 which in turn affects electrochemical reaction is a link between
Ultrasound amplitude 5 lm the electrochemical reaction and mechanical grinding in UAECDG.
It has been found that the surface can be well protected from gen-
eral corrosion by the passive oxide film which formed in passive
solution [30]. To select a proper passive electrolyte and obtain a
the phases of ECM and secondary electrolysis. And the material is stable passivation during the process, it is essential to research
mainly removed during the phase of ECG. In addition, the ultra- 304 stainless steel’s passivation phenomenon in different elec-
sonic vibration of tool electrode in UAECDG is conducive to update trolyte environments. 304 stainless steel’s polarization curves in
of electrolyte and removing of tiny bubbles and other electrolysis different concentration electrolyte are investigated by potentiody-
products so that the flow field can be more uniform. Therefore, namic method as shown in Fig. 4.
in order to achieve high machining accuracy, many important fac- As shown in Fig. 4, the passivation performance of 304 stainless
tors in UAECDG process, such as the electrochemical behavior of steel in 10–20 wt% NaNO3 solution is quite different. 304 stainless
materials, the influence of electrical parameters, ultrasonic ampli- steel in 10 wt% NaNO3 solution has no obvious passivation interval,
tude and matching degree between electrolysis and mechanical and the passivation performance is weak; the passivation potential
grinding on the machining quality of small holes should be dis- range in 15 wt% NaNO3 solution is from 0.58 V to 0.76 V; in 20 wt%
cussed in the following experiments. NaNO3 solution, the passivation potential range is from
0.15 V to

AC frequency Z axis
converter
Ultrasonic
Software Control Tool electrode
motorized spindle
interface cabinet
Electrolyte tank
X, Y axis
Lifting platform

Granite base

Pulse power Ultrasonic

supply generator

Water chiller

(a) Experimental setup

Feed
direction
Vibration
direction Ball-end abrasive electrode
Rotation
direction Auxiliary Ultrasonic vibration ˉ
spray
Cathode Diamond abrasive particle
Diamond D
abrasives Passive oxide film
Anode
Secondary electrolysis
Workpiece
ECG

ECM
D0

(c) Cross-sectional views of UAECDG process

(b) Sketch of machining area
Fig. 3. Sketch of UAECDG process.
 X. Zhu et al. / Journal of Advanced Research 23 (2020) 151–161 155

ignores the loss caused by the electrode dynamics and

-2
concentration-dependent effect. It assumes that the charge trans-
-3 fer in the electrolyte obeys Ohm’s law. Here, we make two
passive potential range hypotheses: first, the electrolyte is electrically neutral, which
-4
counteracts the contribution of current to current density; second,
Log(I /A⋅cm-2)

-5 the composition change of electrolyte is insignificant (i.e., uniform

distribution), which counteracts the contribution of diffusion to
-6 current density, allowing us to consider ion strength as a constant.
Furthermore, we believe that the potential drop at the electrode–
-7
electrolyte interface will not deviate from the equilibrium value.
-8 10% NaNO3 In other words, there is no activated over-potential. It can be seen
15% NaNO3 that the distribution of primary current depends only on the geo-
-9
20% NaNO3 metrical structure of positive and negative electrodes.
-10 In electrochemical machining, the anode and cathode are good
conductors of metal. Therefore, it forms an equal potential surface
-0.75 -0.50 -0.25 0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 1.25 1.50 1.75
on the surface of the cathode and the anode. The potential of the
ESCE /V anode and the cathode meet the Dirichlet Boundary Conditions:

Fig. 4. Polarization curves in NaNO3 solution with different concentrations.

ujB6 ¼ ujB7 ¼ UðtÞ ð1Þ

0.7 V, the passivation range is wider, also, as Fig. 4 shows, 304

stainless steel in 20 wt% NaNO3 solution has quite stable current ujB8 ¼ 0 ð2Þ
density, and among three of them, it has the lowest current density For the electrolyte boundary B1、B2、B3、B4 and B5, the
in passivation state, that is, the passivation reaction is more stable, equipotential line in the electrolyte region is approximately verti-
it indicates formed passive oxide film’s microstructure is denser cal to its surface, i.e., the potential derivative along its normal
and more insulating. It is beneficial to mechanical grinding in direction on the electrolyte boundary is approximately 0, which
UAECDG process and reducing stray corrosionIn short, the passiva- meets the Norman Boundary Conditions:
tion effect of 304 stainless steel in 10-20 wt% NaNO3 solution is
greatly affected by the concentration of NaNO3 solution, the passi- @u @u @u @u @u
vation effect of 304 stainless steel in 20 wt% NaNO3 solution is the jB1 ¼ jB2 ¼ jB3 ¼ jB4 ¼ jB5 ¼ 0 ð3Þ
@n @n @n @n @n
best.
Combining Eq. (1), Eq. (2) and Eq. (3), boundary conditions of
gap electric field in ECDG process can be obtained:
Simulation of ECDG process
8
>
< ujB6 ¼ ujB7 ¼ UðtÞ
In UAECDG process, ECDG process is the majority, and electro-
ujB8 ¼ 0 ð4Þ
chemical machining accounts for the vast majority of material >
: @u
removal in ECDG, so it is necessary to study the electric field of this @n
jB1 ¼ @@nu jB2 ¼ @@nu jB3 ¼ @@nu jB4 ¼ @@nu jB5 ¼ 0
method. In this paper, the electrochemical module of COMSOL The simulation parameters of ECDG process are shown in
Multiphysics is used to simulate hole-enlarging process. Hole- Table 2. The simulation results for ECDG process are shown in
enlarging process of 304 stainless steel plate is studied with the Fig. 6.
condition of primary current distribution. As shown in Fig. 6(a, b), the current concentrates in the area
Two-dimensional geometric model of gap’s electric field in where the ball-end is very close to the workpiece, while there is
ECDG process was established by extracting the contours of pre- almost no current in other areas, which indicates that the localiza-
hole and ball-end electrode, as shown in Fig. 5. Among them, the tion of ECDG adopted in this paper is very good. As shown in
thickness of workpiece is 500 lm, the diameter of tool electrode Fig. 6d, it can be seen that the taper of final hole is much smaller
is 1000 lm, the boundary B1、B2、B3、B4 and B5 are electrolyte after hole-enlarging by UAECDG, compared with the pre-hole. This
boundaries, the boundary B6 and B7 are workpiece boundaries, is because compared with the cylindrical spiral electrode, the dis-
and the boundary B8 is tool electrode boundary. advantageous electrified area of the ball-end electrode has a larger
For the primary current distribution in this simulation, it is only machining gap with the anode workpiece, which greatly reduces
applicable to explain the loss caused by the solution resistance, but the secondary electrolysis effect of the anode workpiece, which
can also be seen in Fig. 6(a, b, c). It is verified that the current den-
sity drops sharply in the machining area with machining gap more
B2 B3 than 50 lm, which reduces the secondary electrochemical corro-
sion and decreases the hole taper. It indicates that UAECDG can
effectively improve the machining quality of the small hole.
Tool electrode B8
B1 B4
Table 2
B6 B7 Simulation parameters of ECDG process.

Item value

Workpiece Electrolyte Workpiece Applied voltage 3.3 V

Feed rate 4 lm/s
B5 Conductivity 11.6S/m
Machining time 280S
Initial machining gap 20 lm
Fig. 5. Two-dimensional geometric model of gap electric field in ECDG process.
156 X. Zhu et al. / Journal of Advanced Research 23 (2020) 151–161

(a) t=0s (b) t=120s

1.8

profile at initial time

profile at end time
1.6
Y-coordinate (mm)

1.4

1.2

1.0

0.8
-1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5
X-coordinate (mm)

(c) t=240s (d) contours of small hole when t=0s and t=240s
Fig. 6. Simulation results of ECDG process.

Results and discussion ultrasonic vibration is to make the removal and renewal of elec-
trolyte more effectively. In the UAECDG process, electrochemical
Pre-holes were machined by ECM for preparing for further hole machining is still the main etching way, so, the selection of electro-
enlargement. Pulse power supply was employed in pre-hole chemical machining parameters is very important.
machining process, and the tool is a spiral electrode with a diam- To explore the influence of machining voltage and duty cycle in
eter of 0.8 mm. Several pre-holes with good repetition accuracy UAECDG process, several groups of comparative experiments were
were successfully machined on 304 stainless steel plate with carried out. Machining efficiency is characterized by the optimal
0.5 mm thickness. In order to meet the requirement of inner wall feed rate, which is the maximum feed rate without short circuit
surface roughness less than 0.4lm. Therefore, further UAECDG in UAECDG process. The experimental results are shown in Fig. 10a.
enlargement of pre-holes is a necessary process. As shown in Fig. 10a, with increasing of machining voltage,
To measure diameter of small holes and observe contour of optimal feed rate increases correspondingly, due to the enhance-
small holes, Nikon SMZ1270 optical microscope was used; to ment of electrochemical etching when the voltage increases, and
observe Micro-morphology of inner surface of the small hole, FEI the increase of the etching material at the same time, so the opti-
Nova Nano-SEM 450 was employed; to measure surface roughness mal feed rate increases correspondingly. With increasing of duty
of hole wall, Wyko NT9300 white light interferometer was used. cycle, optimal feed rate increases, which is similar to the principle
of voltage increase, it is caused by the increase of energy density of
Discussion on electric machining parameters material etching. When the voltage and duty cycle are maximum,
the optimal feed rate is maximum. However, at the same time,
Electrical machining parameters are the controlling factors in stray corrosion becomes more and more serious due to the high
UAECDG process. As we know, the material removed by electro- energy density of erosion. Moreover, passivation film is easy to
chemical machining accounts for about 90% of the combined elec- be broken down and large pieces of erosion material fall off, result-
trochemical grinding machining. In this paper, the role of ing in a serious decline in surface quality.
 X. Zhu et al. / Journal of Advanced Research 23 (2020) 151–161 157

bilization under low voltage was chosen as the machining param-

eter of hole-enlarging process in this paper. As shown in Fig. 10a,
optimal feed rate is moderate and stable at low voltage of 3–
3.5 V. Finally, 3–3.5 V was chosen as the next step to explore the
more suitable voltage range for UAECDG, and the feed rate is
2.5–4.5lm=s.
Low DC High Pulse
Voltage Voltage Matching of ECM and mechanical grinding

The electrical parameters mentioned above have a great influ-

ence on hole-enlarging process. Similarly, if there is no good coop-
eration with other machining parameters, the advantages of
UAECDG cannot be reflected. In this paper, the electrochemical
grinding process removes most of the material by electrochemical
machining, and a brittle passivation film is formed on the surface
of the material. The diamond abrasives attached to the ball-end
Fig. 7. Machining quality of small hole inlet under different electrical parameters. scrape the passivation film away by the rotation of the spindle,
and a new passivation film is produced on the exposed material.
Thus, along with the electrochemical corrosion reaction,
Therefore, in the case of a certain feed rate, the electrical
passivation-grinding also takes place. Continuously alternating,
machining parameters with smaller energy density should be
the final hole is produced by this compound machining method.
selected. At present, there are two choices, one is high voltage with
However, if electrochemical machining and mechanical grinding
low duty cycle, the other is low voltage with high duty cycle. When
do not match, there will inevitably be the following poor machin-
the duty cycle reaches 100%, the pulse signal becomes a DC voltage
ing situation as shown in Fig. 8.
stabilized signal. As shown in Fig. 7, it is obvious that the shape of
As shown in Fig. 8a, when the electrochemical effect is too
small holes produced by DC voltage stabilization at low voltage is
strong, it can be seen that the inlet of the hole wall has a large stray
superior to that produced by high frequency pulse at high voltage.
corrosion, and the diamond abrasives cannot touch the material,
Although high frequency pulse can enhance the localization of
and the finishing effect of mechanical grinding cannot be reflected.
machining, stray corrosion is still serious under high voltage,
As shown in Fig. 8b, when the mechanical grinding effect is too
resulting in worse hole shape, so the hole shape under low voltage
strong, although the hole wall is steep, there are obvious scratches
DC voltage stabilization machining is better. At last, DC voltage sta-
on the inner wall caused by mechanical grinding. It is caused by

(a) Excessive electrochemical effect

(b) Excessive grinding effect

Fig. 8. Surface morphology of the inner wall of small holes when ECM does not match mechanical grinding.
158 X. Zhu et al. / Journal of Advanced Research 23 (2020) 151–161

the direct grinding of the material substrate by diamond abrasives, the substrate, a lot of scratches are produced. The mechanical
which lead to increasing of the surface roughness of inner wall. grinding force can desorb a large amount of diamond, cause serious
Moreover, due to the direct contact between tool electrodes and electrode wear, and greatly reduce the repeatability. Therefore,

(a) Inner wall of pre-hole by ECM (b) Inner wall after hole enlargement by UAECDG
Fig. 9. Inner wall of pre-holes and Inner wall after hole enlargement.

(a) Feed rate under different voltage and duty cycle. (b) Diameter of small hole under different feed rate and voltage.

8 1.0

7 Optimal feed rate

Surfece roughness
0.8
6
Optimal feed rate(Pm/s)

Surface roughness(Pm)

5 0.6
4

3 0.4

2
0.2
1

0 0.0
0 2.5 5 7.5 10
Ultrasound amplitude(Pm)

(c) Surface roughness of inner wall under different (d) Feed rate and surface roughness under
applied voltage and feed rate. different ultrasonic amplitude.
Fig. 10. Optimization of the influence of machining parameters on small hole quality.
 X. Zhu et al. / Journal of Advanced Research 23 (2020) 151–161 159

matching of electrochemical machining and mechanical grinding is eral groups of experiments were conducted. As shown previously,
very important. It is reflected in the matching of machining param- the machining voltage is determined to be 3–3.5 V, and the feed
eters, for example, the matching of applied voltage and feed rate. rate is 2.5–4.5lm=s.
Therefore, in order to determine better machining parameters, sev- Firstly, the effect of feed rate and applied voltage on small holes’
diameter machined by UAECDG is discussed. The experimental
results are shown in Fig. 10b. The diameter increases with the
applied voltage. As the increase of applied voltage, the amount of
Table 3
Machining parameters for UAECDG. material eroded by electrochemical effect increase in the same
machining time, so the diameter becomes larger. Secondly, the
Item value
diameter decreases with the feed rate increasing, it results in
Applied voltage 3.3 V reduction of erosion per unit time and reduction of diameter.
Feed rate 4 lm/s
For researching the influence of applied voltage and feed rate on
Electrolyte 20 wt% NaNO3
Rotation speed 12000r/min surface roughness of small holes’ inner wall, Wyko NT9300 white
Number of diamond abrasives 1200# light interferometer is used to observe and measure the surface
Ultrasound amplitude 0–10 lm roughness of small holes’ inner wall. The measurement results

C C

(a) Inlet (b) outlet

(c) Surface roughness of C-C Cross Section.

Fig. 11. Typical small holes machined by UAECDG.
160 X. Zhu et al. / Journal of Advanced Research 23 (2020) 151–161

are shown in Fig. 10c, when applied voltage is 3.3 V and feed rate is flow mark and pitting corrosion, and the machining quality has
4lm=s, ECM matches the mechanical grinding best. been greatly improved. Therefore, by means of UAECDG, small
As shown in Fig. 9b, after UAECDG process, the inner wall of the holes with diameter of 1.1 + 0.01 mm, taper of less than 0.6 degrees
small hole is smooth and the wall is steep as applied voltage is and surface roughness of 0.31lm can be machined on 304 stainless
3.3 V and feed rate is 4lm=s, it verifies that these parameters are steel plate.
the best which match electrochemical machining and mechanical
grinding. Conclusions

Effect of ultrasonic vibration on machining quality of small In this paper, a brand-new technology UAECDG was proposed,
holes the conclusions can be summarized as follows:

In this paper, ultrasound is transmitted to spindle from ultra- (1) Through the study of the anode polarization curve of 304
sonic generator, and then to the tool electrode, which makes the stainless steel, it is concluded that 20 wt% NaNO3 solution
electrode produce periodic up-and-down vibration, then improves can produce the most stable passivation reaction and reduce
the removal and renewal of electrolyte during hole-enlarging pro- the stray corrosion, which is most conducive to hole-
cess, optimizes the machining environment, and improves the enlarging by UAECDG.
machining stability and quality. (2) The electric field simulation results of the ECDG process
The main controlling factors of ultrasonic machining are ultra- revealed that the ball-end electrode used in this paper can
sonic amplitude and frequency, in which the resonant frequency effectively improve the machining localization and reduce
obtained by sweeping the tool electrodes is generally 24.9– the secondary electrochemical corrosion.
25.1 kHz, and the ultrasonic amplitude is the controlling factor in (3) Experimental study of ultrasonic amplitude in UAECDG pro-
this section. In order to explore the influence of ultrasonic vibra- cess proved that combined the ECDG technology with rea-
tion on the optimal feed rate in UAECDG, this paper used the sonable ultrasonic vibration can effectively improve the
parameters of Table 3 as the machining parameters, in which the machining efficiency and the surface roughness of small
ultrasonic amplitude is varying from 0 to 10lm. The machining holes.
results are shown in Fig. 10d. (4) Influence of electrical parameters, ultrasonic amplitude and
As shown in Fig. 10d, with increasing of ultrasonic amplitude, matching degree between electrolysis and mechanical
optimal feed rate increases correspondingly. This is because the grinding on the machining quality of small holes are dis-
increase of amplitude leads to the enhancement of mass transfer cussed experimentally, which demonstrated that the small
effect of electrolyte and the improvement of electrochemical holes with the hole diameter of 1.1 ± 0.01 mm, the taper
machining environment, which reduces the probability of short of less than 0.6 degree, the surface roughness of 0.31 lm
circuit and increases the optimal feed rate accordingly. And then, can be obtained on 304 stainless steel plate by UAECDG with
optimal feed rate increases sharply and reaches a relatively stable the optimal parameters.
state when ultrasonic amplitude changes from 0lm to 2.5lm, that (5) For further research, UAECDM technology in this paper could
is, from no ultrasonic to ultrasonic. The increased optimal feed rate be rapidly applied to the field of metal additive manufactur-
shows that the machining efficiency of hole-enlarging process has ing, in order to significantly improve the machining accuracy
been significantly improved by ultrasonic vibration. In addition, it and surface quality of small hole structures in metal additive
can be seen from Fig. 10d, when the ultrasonic amplitude is 5lm, manufacturing parts.
the optimal feed rate is 5.5lm=s.
For researching the influence of ultrasonic vibration on surface
roughness of small holes, experiments which employ machining Declaration of Competing Interest
parameters in Table 3 are carried out in this section.
As shown in Fig. 10d, with increasing of the ultrasonic ampli- The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
tude, surface roughness of small holes’ inner wall decreases contin- cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
uously. When the ultrasonic amplitude reaches 5lm, it reaches the to influence the work reported in this paper.
minimum of 0.31lm. In addition, it can be seen that when the
ultrasonic amplitude changes from 0lm to 2.5lm, i.e. from non- Acknowledgements
ultrasonic to ultrasonic vibration, the surface roughness of small
holes’ inner wall decreases from 0.65lm to 0.35lm, and reaches Authors acknowledge financial support from the National Key
a relatively stable state, which indicates that the surface roughness R&D Program of China (No.2018YFB1105900), the Key R&D Pro-
of the hole-enlarging process has been significantly improved by gram of Shandong Province (No. 2019GGX104023), the Natural
ultrasonic vibration. Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No. ZR2018MEE018),
the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Nos. 2018M630772,
2019M662347), and the Young Scholars Program of Shandong
Typical machining results University, Weihai (No. 2015WHWLJH03).

Combined with the previous experiments and analysis, by

References
choosing the following machining parameters of UAECDG, the best
quality holes can be obtained on 304 stainless steel plate. The [1] Gurav MM, Gupta U, Dabade UA. Quality evaluation of precision micro holes
applied voltage is 3.3 V, the feed rate is 4lm=s, the electrolyte is drilled using pulsed Nd:YAG laser on aerospace nickel-based superalloy. Mater
Today: Proc 2019;19:575–82.
20 wt% NaNO3, the electrode rotation speed is 12000r/min, the
[2] Wang Y, Jiang P. Fluctuation evaluation and identification model for small-
number of diamond abrasives is 1200#, and the ultrasonic ampli- batch multistage machining processes of complex aircraft parts. Proceedings of
tude is 5lm. The typical machining results are shown in Fig. 11. the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering
As shown in Fig. 11, the holes obtained by UAECDG has good Manufacture 2015;231(10):1820–37.
[3] Geng D, Teng Y, Liu Y, Shao Z, Jiang X, Zhang D. Experimental study on drilling
dimensional consistency, good surface quality and minimal taper. load and hole quality during rotary ultrasonic helical machining of small-
Compared with the pre-holes, there are almost no electrochemical diameter CFRP holes. J Mater Process Technol 2019;270:195–205.
 X. Zhu et al. / Journal of Advanced Research 23 (2020) 151–161 161

[4] Sen M, Shan HS. Analysis of Roundness Error and Surface Roughness in the [18] Judal KB, Yadava V. Electrochemical magnetic abrasive machining of AISI304
Electro Jet Drilling Process. Mater Manuf Processes 2006;21(1):1–9. stainless steel tubes. Int J Precis Eng Manuf 2012;14(1):37–43.
[5] Jia BX, Wang ZL, Zhao WS. Micro hole machining technology based on non- [19] Zhu D, Zeng YB, Xu ZY, Zhang XY. Precision machining of small holes by the
traditional machining. Electromachining Mould 2005;02:1–5 (in Chinese). hybrid process of electrochemical removal and grinding. CIRP Ann 2011;60
[6] Ai DM, Jia ZX. Development status of small hole machining technology. (1):247–50.
Mechanical Engineer 2000;01:8–10 (in Chinese). [20] Ge Y, Zhu Z, Wang D, Ma Z, Zhu D. Study on material removal mechanism of
[7] Churi NJ, Pei ZJ, Treadwell C. Rotary ultrasonic machining of titanium alloy: electrochemical deep grinding. J Mater Process Technol 2019;271:510–9.
effects of machining variables. Machining Science and Technology 2006;10 [21] Niu S, Qu N, Yue X, Li H. Effect of tool-sidewall outlet hole design on machining
(3):301–21. performance in electrochemical mill-grinding of Inconel 718. J Manuf
[8] Shao-Hsien C, Tsai K-T. Predictive Analysis for the Thermal Diffusion of the Processes 2019;41:10–22.
Plasma-Assisted Machining of Superalloy Inconel-718 Based on Exponential [22] Zaborski S, Łupak M, Poroś D. Wear of cathode in abrasive electrochemical
Smoothing. Adv Mater Sci Eng 2018;2018:1–9. grinding of hardly machined materials. J Mater Process Technol 2004;149(1–
[9] Guodong L, Yong L, Quancun K, Hao T. Selection and Optimization of 3):414–8.
Electrolyte for Micro Electrochemical Machining on Stainless Steel 304. [23] Wang T, Du K, Liu W, Zhu Z, Shao Y, Li M. Enhanced electrocatalytic activity of
Procedia CIRP 2016;42:412–7. MoP microparticles for hydrogen evolution by grinding and electrochemical
[10] Liu Y, Wu X, Kong H. Investigation of Electrochemical Nanostructuring with activation. J Mater Chem A 2015;3(8):4368–73.
Ultrashort Pulses by Using Nanoscale Electrode. Curr Nanosci 2019;15 [24] Curtis DT, Soo SL, Aspinwall DK, Sage C. Electrochemical superabrasive
(3):279–88. machining of a nickel-based aeroengine alloy using mounted grinding
[11] Wu Q, Ma Y, Jie J, Yu Q, Liao Y, Fang R, et al. Hole drilling of Inconel 718 by high points. CIRP Ann 2009;58(1):173–6.
intensity pulsed ultraviolet laser. J Laser Appl 2003;15(3):168–71. [25] Hutli E, Nedeljkovic MS, Bonyár A, Légrády D. Experimental study on the
[12] Morar NI, Roy R, Mehnen J, Marithumu S, Gray S, Roberts T, et al. Investigation influence of geometrical parameters on the cavitation erosion characteristics
of recast and crack formation in laser trepanning drilling of CMSX-4 angled of high speed submerged jets. Exp Therm Fluid Sci 2017;80:281–92.
holes. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology [26] Nagalingam AP, Yeo SH. Effects of ambient pressure and fluid temperature in
2018;95(9–12):4059–70. ultrasonic cavitation machining. The International Journal of Advanced
[13] Tao X, Liu Z, Qiu M, Tian Z, Shen L. Research on an EDM-based unitized drilling Manufacturing Technology 2018;98(9–12):2883–94.
process of TC4 alloy. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing [27] Zhao Q, Deng Z, Yang D, Gu X, Zhu Y. Study on Multi-effect Synergy Mechanism
Technology 2018;97(1–4):867–75. of the Ultrasonic Compound Electro-discharged and Electrochemical
[14] Li C, Zhang B, Li Y, Tong H, Ding S, Wang Z, et al. Self-adjusting EDM/ECM high Machining and Real Time Optimal Controlling of On-line Parameters.
speed drilling of film cooling holes. J Mater Process Technol 2018;262:95–103. Procedia CIRP 2018;68:150–5.
[15] Kumar J, Khamba JS, Mohapatra SK. Investigating and modeling tool-wear rate [28] Wang D, Zhu Z, He B, Ge Y, Zhu D. Effect of the breakdown time of a passive
in the ultrasonic machining of titanium. The International Journal of Advanced film on the electrochemical machining of rotating cylindrical electrode in
Manufacturing Technology 2008;41(11–12):1107–17. NaNO 3 solution. J Mater Process Technol 2017;239:251–7.
[16] Zhao J, Wang F, Zhang X, Yang Z, Lv Y, He Y. Experimental Research on [29] Xu H, Wang L, Sun D, Yu H. The passive oxide films growth on 316L stainless
Improving ECM Accuracy and Stability for Diamond-hole Grilles. Procedia CIRP steel in borate buffer solution measured by real-time spectroscopic
2018;68:684–9. ellipsometry. Appl Surf Sci 2015;351:367–73.
[17] Qu NS, Zhang QL, Fang XL, Ye EK, Zhu D. Experimental Investigation on [30] Zhang B, Wang J, Wu B, Guo XW, Wang YJ, Chen D, et al. Unmasking chloride
Electrochemical Grinding of Inconel 718. Procedia CIRP [Internet]. Elsevier BV attack on the passive film of metals. Nature. Communications 2018;9(1).
2015;35:16–9.