ECM Second Cut for Finishing the Surface Produced by Wire EDM

One of the problems of using NC-wire EDM is that in some cases the quality of the machined surface is not sufficient. When a very smooth surface is required, a further finishing process is necessary. However, this takes time and man power. In this paper an application of wire ECM is proposed for this finishing purpose. The final'second cut' operation of wire EDM process is changed to pulsed wire ECM. Sodium nitrate solution is used as the electrolyte. The results of the experiments show the applicability of this method in practical use. It will lead the wire EDM process to a full automatic process including the final surface smoothing.