Electrolytic Cutting by Rotary Disk

An electrolytic cutting method using a cathode of a metal disk was studied. A working materia., an anode, was moved so as to leave a constant distance from the cathode. A portion of the speedily revolving cathode was dipped in the electrolyte so as to have the electrolyte fed into the gap between both electrodes. High carbon steel was used as the working material and NaCl solution was used as the electrolyte. The small overcut and the improved machined accuracy were simultaneously obtained with the increased revolving speed of the cathode and or the decreased dipping depth, thus giving uniform cut width along the direction of cutting depth. As to elimination of the difference between the front side (small) and the back side (large) overcut, however, above means were rather ineffective. Such variation could be suppressed by having a corpuscular dispersion of a liquid insulator of smaller specific gravity than that of the electrolyte. This dispersion was obtained by adding suitable quantities of kerosene and a surface active agent. The machining speed increased initially with the increase of the voltage and the revolving speed of the cathode, but decreased above certain values of the voltage and the revolving speed.