Improving cylindricity and connectricity of hollow cylinder parts by electrochemical machining

Widely used in many mechanical systems, hollow cylinder-shaped parts should be accurately machined to ensure two critical specifications, i.e., cylindricity and concentricity. A dedicated electrochemical machining (ECM) system is designed to improve the cylindricity and concentricity of a small bearing. In order to optimise the ECM process, the commercial CAE software, COMSOL multi-physics, is utilised to analyse some key process parameters such as temperature, current density and flow distribution. From the analysis results, a suitable cathode, which is the ECM tool, could be designed. Temperature distribution, the cathode tool, current distribution, material removal rate (MRR) with the assistance of CAE software and the design of the ECM cathode tool are more efficient and accurate.