Wire electrochemical contour evolution machining of gear involute artifact with horizontal electrode

Gear involute artifact (GIA) is an indispensable tool in the detection of high-precision gears. In this paper, a new method of horizontal electrode wire electrochemical contour evolution machining (HE-WECEM) was proposed to machine GIA. Compared with traditional circular interpolation for machining involute, HE-WECEM simulates the evolving process of involute to greatly improve the machining accuracy. Firstly, the machining mechanism of GIA by HE-WECEM was studied through mathematical models and electric field simulations. Secondly, reciprocating feed and two-way flushing fluid system was used, and its effectiveness in updating the electrolyte in the machining slit was analyzed through a flow-field simulation. And then, comparative experiment was designed to further validate the effectiveness of the flushing fluid system. The results indicate that the flushing system can effectively improve the stability of HE-WECEM. Finally, single-factor experiments were designed to investigate the effects of electrical parameters on machining. Based on the single-factor experiments, the Box–Behnken experiment was conducted on the electrical parameters. The response surface methodology (RSM) was used to analyze the composite effects of electrical parameters and obtain the optimal combination of machining parameters. A GIA blank with base circle radius of 50 mm was fabricated on an 8-mm-thick GCr15 workpiece, and the maximum deviation of tooth profile can reach 17.18 μm. The average surface roughness Sa reaches 1.435 μm. It is proved that HE-WECEM is a reliable method for machining GIA blank.