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Manufacturing of components with complex internal features, e.g. for medical applications, aeronautics or automobile industry, is challenging. Those components are often machined in temporarily and locally separated production stages. As results of these separated stages form deviations and positioning errors increase, which lead to additional efforts for the quality assurance. The technology aimed within the project SwitchECM is expected to allow the machining of different complex features of one workpiece in one single production stage and shall simultaneously allow a high precision. For this purpose, a multi-cathode system will be developed, in which separated cathodes can be switched with specific parameters, depending on the requirements of the pre-defined features. This study will show the capability to machine the workpiece with different parameter sets but the same cathode and device as fundamental work for the machining with a multi-cathode system. Therefore the surface and dissolution characteristics for the material 1.4301 were used to design the process. The machining tasks were determined to deburring and edge shaping. In the experiments, the parameters voltage and working time were selected depending on the final geometry. It will be shown that the deburring task can be handled with nearly no edge shaping and the edge shaping task is suitable to adjust different edge geometries.

In Electrochemical Machining (ECM), where the material removal takes place based on the anodic dissolution of the workpiece material, the working distance is one of the most important parameters. Especially in Jet Electrochemical Machining (Jet-ECM), where a micro nozzle is moved over the initial surface of the workpiece in order to apply an electrolytic free jet to produce the desired shapes, the distance between the nozzle and the workpiece becomes even more important. On the one hand a small working distance is aspired to achieve high current densities resulting in a high efficiency of the process. On the other hand the working distance needs to be large enough to avoid damages on the micro nozzle caused by electrical discharges or mechanical contact. Hence, the adjustment of the working gap is essential to realize a precise, effective and secure Jet-ECM process. The control of the gap size is done based on the data gathered before machining by surface measurement. Until now, the initial surface has been detected by electrostatic probing through moving the nozzle stepwise to the work piece surface and detect the voltage drop between the nozzle and the work piece. With this strategy, only a limited number of points can be detected within adequate time. Hence, in most cases only three points of the initial surface are detected in order to adjust the working distance according to the planar inclination of the workpiece. The coordinates of the three detected points are used to calculate the normal vector of the initial surface. In recent studies, another strategy was analysed, which is realized by dividing the surface into smaller areas and respectively calculating the normal vector of each area in order to obtain more accurate data of the initial surface. A further strategy is to use probing along the machining path of the tool and to gather the coordinates of a number of points along the path. The above mentioned methods usually do not ensure the precise control of

Plasma electrolytic Polishing (PeP) is a non-conventional technology for the surface treatment of electrically conductive materials. It is an effective machining technique for cleaning and polishing of metals and considered as a more environmentally friendly alternative to the electropolishing process. The electropolishing process uses aggressive media such as acids, whereas in PeP, acids or toxicants are replaced by low concentrated water solutions of various salts. In PeP, high DC voltage is applied to the electrodes in the aqueous electrolyte solution, which establishes a thin steam-gas layer around the surface of the work piece resulting in the generation of plasma. From the previous research, it is found that the formation of stable plasma generally takes place between 180-370 volts, where it results in better surface conditions. The aim of this study is to analyse the behaviour of current according to different voltages and their effects on surface roughness and material removal rate (MRR) of stainless steel in Plasma electrolytic Polishing process.

Der Maschinenbau benötigt zum Erhalt seiner Innovationsfähigkeit neue, ganzheitliche Ansätze, die die vollständige Digitalisierung der Produktentwicklung bis zur digitalen Produktion/Fabrik und auch die Geschäftsprozesse, das Produktionsmanagement und gesamtwirtschaftliche Aspekte einschließen. Ziel der Profillinie ist es, Ressourcen und Kompetenzen zu bündeln und unter Beachtung des industriellen Umfeldes und der Veränderungen im Forschungsumfeld in Deutschland und Europa eine “kritische Masse” an F&E-Potenzial zu schaffen, die es erlaubt, an der Spitze der Maschinenbauforschung zu agieren.