Quality Aspects of Electrochemical Micro Drilling With Insulated Tool and Masked Workpiece

Electrochemical micro drilling (ECMD) is one of the sub-divisions of the electrochemical micro machining (ECMM) process. In the present work, a comparative study of ECMD with bare tool, insulated tool, and insulated tool with masked workpiece has been presented. Drilling of micro holes is done using copper wires of 500 μm tip diameter. These copper wires coated with varnish are easily available in the market. In ECMD, taper and undercut are produced in the hole. The effects of input parameters such as voltage, duty cycle, electrolyte concentration, feed rate and inter-electrode gap on the output parameters namely, taper angle and undercut have been studied. Empirical models have been developed. In the present paper, a new idea of insulated tool and masked workpiece has been presented. The present idea came out as the most effective method of minimizing both the taper angle as well as undercut. Photographic analysis of micro drilled hole in the workpiece has been carried out using Dino-Lite Digital Microscope.