Advantages and Disadvantages
Because the tool does not contact the workpiece, its advantage over conventional machining is that there is no need to use expensive alloys to make the tool tougher than the workpiece. There is less tool wear in ECM, and less heat and stress are produced in processing that could damage the part. Fewer passes are typically needed, and the tool can be repeatedly used.
Disadvantages are the high tooling costs of ECM, and that up to 40,000 amps of current must be applied to the workpiece. The saline (or Acidic) electrolyte also poses the risk of corrosion to tool, workpiece and equipment.
Read more about this topic: Electrochemical Machining
Famous quotes containing the word advantages:
“In 1845 he built himself a small framed house on the shores of Walden Pond, and lived there two years alone, a life of labor and study. This action was quite native and fit for him. No one who knew him would tax him with affectation. He was more unlike his neighbors in his thought than in his action. As soon as he had exhausted himself that advantages of his solitude, he abandoned it.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)