Surface improvement and status simulation of alloy tool steel by electrochemical polishing

This study improves the surface of an alloy tool steel and simulates status of one-pulse electrochemical polishing. The COMSOL Multiphysics™ software is utilized to simulate and predict the status of one-pulse electrochemical machining. Simulation content includes current conduction model and moving boundary model. The simulated corner variation is compared with experimental result. One-pulse electrochemical polishing parameter effects on the surface are presented. Alloy tool steel with a good surface roughness was obtained using one-pulse electrochemical polishing parameter as voltage of 15 V, machining time of 0. 1 sec, electrolyte concentration of 30% and inlet electrolyte pressure of 7 Kgf/cm². Experimental results show that surface roughness is improved from 0. 25 pm Ra to 0. 095 pm Ra.