Selection of a suitable electrolyte for electrochemical grinding of high-speed steel roll material based on electrochemical techniques and uniform design machining experiments

High-speed steel (HSS) rolls are essential critical components in the steel rolling industry. Unfortunately, the working layer material has poor machinability via conventional grinding process for surface dressing because they have excellent properties. Electrochemical grinding (ECG) is a common machining approach that is used for metal materials. A significant factor for the machining quality of metal materials is the electrolytes, and thus, the selection of a suitable electrolyte for ECG is a primary problem. However, the previous studies have presented very little information on the electrolyte selection for ECG of HSS roll material. This paper proposes a method for investigating the selection of a suitable electrolyte for ECG of HSS roll material using electrochemical testing techniques and uniform design (UD) experiments. Electrochemical behavior, such as electrochemical corrosion and passivation behavior, was assessed to select a suitable electrolyte composition. The results indicate that the electrochemical passivation of composite electrolytes is better than that of single-component electrolytes. From the UD-ECG experiments, an optimal electrolyte content is obtained using a stepwise linear regression model and a multi-objective fuzzy programming approach. The results show that the surface machining quality of the optimal composite electrolyte is better than those of groups with other ratio combinations. Therefore, the method and results used to select a suitable electrolyte obtained using a combination of electrochemical testing techniques and ECG experiments may provide the knowledge for ECG machining, such as that of HSS roll materials and other metal materials.