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Keywords: This paper is concerned with the shaped tube electrochemical drilling (STED) of small diameter cooling
ECM
holes in turbine blades. Following an initial identification of the common defects occurring in STED, a
Deep hole drilling
partial factorial design of experiments (DOE) was carried out to identify the more important process
STEM
parameters that affect hole quality. For these process parameters, a full factorial design of experiments
was conducted to study their effects not only on hole diameter but also on hole taper. Guidelines and
equations for determining appropriate operating conditions to drill a good quality hole are presented for
one drill diameter.
ß 2009 CIRP.
1. Introduction In order to drill good quality holes, Sharma et al. [6] tried to
determine the optimum values of the process parameters
Turbine blades and nozzle guide vanes usually have several experimentally but they limited their investigations to only two
small diameter cooling channel holes, with diameters as small as process parameters i.e. voltage and feedrate. In addition, they
0.8 mm and aspect ratios as large as 250. Because of these large defined hole quality in terms of overcut variation. In a subsequent
aspect ratios, processes such as laser beam machining, electron work, Bilgi et al. [7] included pulse on-time, duty cycle and the
beam machining and conventional drilling are unsuitable for length of un-insulated tool. However, they employed a non-
producing these holes. The most suitable process is shaped tube standard tool and a pulsed DC voltage. The main objectives of this
electrolytic machining (STEM) as there are no residual stresses in work are: identify the different types of defects in STED; determine
the workpiece and no cutting forces acting on the slender tool. the effects of the process parameters on hole quality (diameter and
The earliest reference to STEM is due to Jackson and Olson [1] taper); and determine the values of the process parameters for a
who used an acid electrolyte to dissolve the removed anodic metal given hole quality.
rather than it forming sludge. Bellows [2] drew on experiences at
the General Electric Company to disseminate knowledge of the 2. Types of defects
STEM process by citing practical examples, metal removal rates
and achievable tolerances. In addition to comparing the capabil- From the authors’ industrial experience, the more important
ities of STEM, electrojet, electrostream and capillary drilling defects have been identified as follows:
processes, Jorg [3] provided an overview of the practical difficulties
in shaped tube electrochemical drilling (STED). Cox [4] improved (i) Drill wander. Occasionally the drill deviates from the desired
our understanding of STEM by carrying out experimental path and in extreme circumstances even breaks out into the
investigations which led him to conclude that (i) the nitric acid blade surface or adjacent hole. Cox [4] suggests that the drill
electrolyte strength should be maintained between 12–15% (v/v) derives its stiffness from the electrolyte pressure and hence, at
which is in agreement with the results of Jackson and Olson, and low pressures, it is prone to wander (see Fig. 1(a)).
(ii) the surface finish of the drilled hole is affected by the duration (ii) Threading. Sometimes the hole may exhibit a repetitive pattern
of the forward and reverse voltage pulses. Janssen demonstrated of diameter variation which is reminiscent of a threaded hole
that STED could also be used for turbulated and micro holes [5]. (see Fig. 1(b)). It is seen to occur at high electrolyte pressures.
More recently, Sharma et al. [6], and Bilgi et al. [7] studied the (iii) Hole inaccuracy. The two main types of inaccuracies are hole
STEM process using pulsed electrochemical machining, the early taper and deviations from the required hole size. Fig. 1(c) shows a
analysis of which was investigated by Kozak et al. [8], Rajurkar convergent hole. Another type of defect is longitudinal striations
et al. [9] and Yu et al. [10]. Because these researchers did not use which are associated with hydrodynamic flow patterns.
reverse polarity, a clean tool surface could not be assured as (iv) Drill bending. There are two possible causes for its occurrence.
undissolved metal by-products may have adhered to the tool In the first case, due to a combination of high feedrates and low
surface. However, with reverse voltage, the tool must be voltages, short circuits can occur, leading to drill bending
periodically redressed. which can be corrected by replacing or straightening the drill.
In the second case, the use of reverse voltage causes the drill to
wear. If this wear is excessive, the overcut is progressively
* Corresponding author. reduced leading to drill clamping and bending of the drill.
3. Experimental set-up
the insulation being 0.076 mm. The electrolyte was nitric acid
(HNO3) diluted to 20% by weight in water. The applied voltage was In test 1, the combination of low feedrate, high forward voltage
obtained from a pulsating power supply with the polarity being and low reverse voltage resulted in the maximum hole size. On the
reversed for a very small fraction of the cycle time. other hand, the combination of high feedrate, low forward and high
The experiments were conducted in two stages: preliminary reverse voltages resulted in the smallest hole diameter (test 8).
tests to determine the more important parameters; and two-level Unlike the other tests, 7 and 8 resulted in a converging taper, the
full factorial tests. taper in test 8 being considerably greater. This is understandable
In stage 1, the workpiece was an Inconel block of height since the high value of reverse voltage would have caused the tool
100 mm into which through holes were drilled. The results to wear at a faster rate. The right half of Fig. 2 shows a worn tool,
indicated that a block height of 35 mm would be sufficient for the the chamfer on the end face of which has become concave. This
experiments in stage 2. concavity would have reduced the intensity of the electric field
near the cylindrical surface of the hole. Progressive tool wear,
4. Results and discussion combined with low voltage, would have caused the overcut to keep
diminishing resulting in a converging taper. A diminishing overcut
4.1. Stage 1 would have an adverse effect on the flowrate. Consequently, the
electrolyte in front of the tool would get heated up and even
Since it is a shop-floor belief that metal-ion concentration (Me, possibly boil. Fig. 3 shows that the flowrate in test 8 decreased
g/l) is an important parameter, it was not considered in the first rapidly from its initial value of 320 ml/min to below 20.
stage but directly in the second. The main reason for doing this was Measurements of flowrate below this value were outside the
to keep the number of experiments to a more manageable level in range of the flowmeter used. The output values shown in Table 1
the first stage. The other input variables were feedrate (f, mm/ are the averages of three runs but in the case of test 8, only one run
min), forward voltage (Vf, volts), reverse voltage (Vr, volts), forward was successful and the other two resulted in drill bending,
voltage time (tf, s), reverse voltage time (tr, s) and pressure (p, bar). indicating that the radial gap had reduced even further.
The output parameters were the hole diameter at entry (Dent, mm) In tests 1–6, holes were produced with diverging tapers. Even in
and taper, which is given by Dexit Dent. Table 1 shows the values these cases, there was a reduction in the flow rate after the initial
of the input and output variables. rapid fall e.g. test 5 (Fig. 3). A consequence of this would be a rise in
This STEM drill was expected to produce a nominal hole of electrolyte temperature and conductivity, accompanied by a
diameter 2.05 mm with a tolerance of 0.1 mm, thus most of the steady increase in current (test 5, Fig. 3), resulting in a
results shown are acceptable. continuously increasing overcut.
Table 1
Values of the variables in stage 1 (hole depth = 100 mm).
f Vf Vr tf tr p Dent Taper
Table 2
Main effects of the input variables on hole diameter.
f Vf Vr tf tr p
4.2. Stage 2
In the second step, these equations are used to check if the user-
selected values will indeed result in the required values of Dent and
taper. If, for example, Vf = 16 V, f = 1.6 mm/min, p = 2 bar and
Me = 1.5 g/l, then Dent and the taper (over a length of 35 mm) are
predicted to be 2.10 and 0.02 mm respectively.
Alternatively, step 1 can be bypassed and the values of the
process parameters obtained from the equations by trial and error.
5. Conclusions
(i) The more important parameters that influence hole size and
hole taper in STED are feedrate, forward voltage, electrolyte
pressure and metal-ion concentration.
(ii) Taper holes are explainable in terms of electrolyte flow rate
and tool wear. In a few tests, bulrushing was evident at high
Fig. 5. Effects of the interactions between process parameters on (a) Dent and (b) pressure and low feedrate.
taper. (iii) A full factorial approach has given greater insight into the
process, yielded guidelines for selecting process conditions and
led to the development of a process model which establishes the
values of the process parameters for a desired hole quality.
curves were obtained at constant feedrates. Referring to the Acknowledgments
curves in cell (1, 3), the interaction between metal-ion concen-
tration and feedrate is weak because the curves include a The authors would like to acknowledge the funding received
relatively small angle. The selection of values for the machining from Knowledge Transfer Partnership (No. 1131) EPSRC/DTI and
parameters is done in two steps. In the first step, the curves shown I*PROMS, an EU FP6 Network of Excellence.
in Fig. 5(a) and (b) are used as guidelines to deduce a set of values
for the process parameters to achieve a required hole quality.
Referring again to the curves in cell (2, 3), Fig. 5(b), the 12 V curve References
corresponds to smaller values of taper than the 18 V curve. Hence,
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Alloy with Acidified NaCl Electrolyte. International Journal of Advanced Man-
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