Electrochemical machining casing mounting flange via a concave arc-shaped tool

The mounting flange is an important part of the thin-walled casing, and its forming process faces many challenges in traditional machining, such as machining stress and workpiece deformation. To overcome these defects, electrochemical machining is used to machine the casing mounting flange via an arc-shaped tool, and a 3D simulation model is built to study the material dissolution process. Predicted results indicate that the potential gradient between the workpiece and tool changes uniformly under optimized parameters, and the variations of accuracy indicators can be quantitatively described by expressions. The physical mounting flanges are manufactured, the thickness is 1.83 mm, and the taper is 16.23°. The deviation for simulation and experimental profiles is less than 9%, which indicates the effectiveness of the modeling. In addition, the machined Ti-6Al-4V surface Ra is approximately 1.16 μm, and the wall thickness error of a 1 mm-thick workpiece is only 0.023 mm.