Improving the Localization of Surface Texture by Electrochemical Machining with Auxiliary Anode

Surface texture can be generated by through-mask electrochemical micromachining. However, the machining localization deteriorates by the lateral undercutting under the mask. In this article, the auxiliary anode was consisted in the mask to reduce the lateral undercutting to improve localization of the surface texture. Numerical simulation of the current density distribution in the interelectrode gap was used to theoretically verify the proposed method, and the effect of the auxiliary anode on the localization was investigated experimentally. The experimental results indicated that the machining localization could be significantly improved by the auxiliary anode, and the etch factor was decreased with the increasing machining voltage.