Indian Institute of Technology

Ropar[India]

Manufacturing with Metallic Materials MEL202

ELECTRO JET DRILLING

By
Manish Anand

CONTENTS

Introduction
Working
Experimental Results and Discussions

MRR
Radial Overcut
Hole Taper

Desirable Conditions of hole

Advantages and Disadvantages
Conclusions
References

Introduction

Demands of small size machines have directed our

attention to nontraditional techniques
EJD is Non-traditional method
Micro level hole drilling
Use in = cooling holes in jet turbine blades,
printed circuit board, inkjet printer head, surgical
implants,

Working
a negatively charged stream of acid electrolyte is impinged on the workpiece to form
a hole.
The acid electrolyte (1025% concentration) is passed under pressure (0.31.0 MPa)
through a finely drawn glass tube nozzle.
The electrolyte jet acts as a cathode when a platinum wire, inserted into the glass
tube well above the fine capillary is connected to the negative terminal of a DC
power supply. The workpiece acts as an anode.
When a suitable electric potential is applied across the two electrodes, the material
removal takes place through electrolytic dissolution as the electrolyte stream strikes
the workpiece.
The metal ions thus removed are carried away with the flow of the electrolyte. A
much longer and thinner electrolyte flow path requires much higher voltage (150750
V) so as to effect sufficient current flow.

Lack of Knowledge

Available literature mainly deals with qualitative

description
Relation between influencing parameters and effects are
not completely known.
Experiments

Central composite Design[CCD]

Response Surface Method[RSM]

INPUT

OUTPUT

Applied Voltage, Electrolyte

concentration, Feed Rate

Overcut, Taper, material

Removal

Material Removal Rate(MRR)

MRR=(W1-W2)/time

W1,W2 are initial and final weight of work piece.

Radial Overcut

The difference between the size of the electrode and the size
of the cavity created during machining.
Overcut =[d(entry)-d(glass capillary)]/2
d(entry),d(glass capillary are diameter of entry to work piece and capillary

Hole Taper

An angled, gradually narrowing feature on a part.

Tapper()=Tan-1[(dentry-dexit)/2t]
dentry-dexit=difference between diameters of jet interring to piece and exiting
piece.
t= thickness of work piece.

Experimental results and discussion

Using CCD and RSD techniques experiment and data

collection was performance.
Graphs were plotted and discussions were noted.

Experiment setup

MRR

Applied Voltage

Electrolyte Conc.

3D surface of MRR model

Increase in electrolytes conc. increases MRR

because it increases conductivity more
amount of current flow

Feed rate

Main Effect of Input parameters on MRR

As voltage increases-current increases-MRR

increases(Faradays Law)
Increases rapidly above 350 V

Increase in FR-reduces inter electrode gapleads to smaller ohmic resistance-inc

electrolyzing current

Radial Overcut

Decides the quality of EJD holes

Applied Voltage

Electrolyte Conc.

Higher feed rate-less radial overcut-because

less interaction time

Current

3D surfaces of radial overcut

Increase in electrolytic conc.-greater overcut

Feed Rate

Increases in applied voltage- greater overcut

Inc. in current-increases overcut

Main Effect of parameter over radial overcut

Hole Taper

3D surface of hole taper model

Hole taper depends on diff. between hole

entrance diameter and hole exit diameter.
Increasing applied voltage and electrolyte
concentration- results in greater hole taper reasons for this is that the electro jet remains
in contact with the entry side of the
workpiece for a maximum period of time
resulting in a larger hole entrance diameter
than the hole exit diameter

Main effect of input parameters on hole taper

Desirable Condition for hole making

Low overcut and reduced hole taper

In favoured condition
V=325 DC Volts
17.5 % electrolyte conc.
Feed rate 0.5 mm/min

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

Micro-level holes can be made.

Applied on hard and brittle material
Material are removed easily
Less costly than traditional drilling

Disadvantages

Set up should not vibrate otherwise hole will get large

or deform.
More maintenance

Conclusions

Applied voltage, electrolyte concentration, feed rate and interaction between the
applied voltage and electrolyte concentration are the significant parameters in all
the three models.
The increase in feed rate not only enhances the material removal but it also
enables to control the radial overcut as well as hole taper. Since the fine glass
nozzle, used to direct the electrolyte jet on the workpiece in the EJD process,
moves inside the workpiece therefore a judicious selection of feed rate is very
important for the success of the process in view of the fragile nature of the glass.
The selected feed rates should be compatible with the dissolution efficiency of the
work material at the applied potential level.
Within the overall range of test conditions employed, the optimum results, that is
maximum MRR with least radial overcut and small hole taper were achieved in the
following ranges of the parameters.

Voltage: 190325 V
Electrolyte concentration: 13-17.5%
Feed rate: 0.20.5 mm/min.

Higher applied voltage, though it results in greater MRR, tends to produce holes of
poor quality in terms of large radial overcut and hole taper.

References
Iit roorkee sites
Ahmed MS, Duffield A (1990) The drilling of
small deep holes by acid ECM. Proc Advanced
Machining Technology III Conference, Chicago,
IL, 46 Sept 1990, MR90-243, pp113
Design-Expert Version 6.0.8, Stat-Ease Inc.,
Minneapolis
Montgomery DC, Peck EA (1992) Introduction
to linear regression analysis. Wiley, New York