The impact of electrochemical assistance on the microturning process

In the paper, the concept of an electrochemically assisted microturning process is presented. This is a hybrid machining process in which microcutting directly removes the material while electrochemical passivation changes the conditions of material removal. A test stand was designed and built to investigate this process. The experimental part includes a discussion of the research methodology and a comparison of the straight turning results in the case of machining 1.4301 stainless steel without and with electrochemical assistance. The change of the main cutting force resulting from electrochemical assistance was selected as the main investigated technological factor. Based on this study, we can state that in the case analyzed here (when only passivation is taken into account), electrochemical assistance brings significant benefits when the depth-of-cut is ≤1 μm.