Microstructure of electrochemical machining using mask by dual power supply

Microstructures have found wide application in many industrial fields such as aerospace, automobile, electronics, etc. This paper proposes a novel processing method of electrochemical machining (ECM) of microstructure. A mask is composed of a patterned insulation plate and inert metal sheet, in which the inert metal sheet acts as auxiliary anode is closely attached to workpiece. A metal plate above the inert metal sheet acts as cathode. When voltages are applied across the workpiece/inert metal sheet and the cathode over which the electrolyte flows at high speed, the workpiece will be dissolved and the metal structure with many microfeatures will be produced according to the Faraday’s law. The proposed technology has significant advantages such as stability, efficiency, and low cost. A mathematical model is developed to predict shape evolution during the ECM using mask by dual power supply. Some experiments were performed to verify the proposed model. The results showed that the simulation data accorded well with the actual profile. The method is applied to produce microstructure with several hundred micrometers diameter and several tens of micrometers in depth.