Experimentation into Electrochemical Discharge Milling for Generation of Cavity on Glass

The development of electrochemical discharge machining (ECDM) and the use of electrically nonconducting materials in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), biomedical applications and making lab-on-a-chip devices are increasing tremendously. In this study, the performance of electrochemical discharge milling was improved by introducing the bottom-up movement of tool-electrode, i.e. vertically upward tool-feeding technique. The development of gas film model was compared with the actual gas film shapes to find out the problems associated with the existing tool-feeding technique and the advantages of vertically upward tool-feeding technique. Single channels were generated on the soda lime glass workpiece to analyze and obtain appropriate process parameters for good-quality channels. Applied voltage, electrolyte concentration and tool feed rate (TFR) were varied to get good-quality channel. It was achieved at the process parameters of an applied voltage of 40 V, an electrolyte concentration of 5 M and a TFR of 50 [Formula: see text]m/s. With this parametric setting, four consecutive parallel channels were generated to get cavity on the soda lime glass. Rectangular-shaped cavities were fabricated by adopting three different strategies to minimize the problem of material deposition along the border of two adjacent parallel channels. These rectangular cavities were observed under a microscope to measure and obtain the surface topography which revealed the usability of third strategy of generating smooth and uniform cavity with lower surface roughness ([Formula: see text][Formula: see text]). A rectangular cavity of 0.247-[Formula: see text]m surface roughness with smooth corners and edges was obtained at 40 V of applied voltage and 50 [Formula: see text]m/s of TFR.